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ENTERTAINMENT
10 Game Grab Baa $9.95 Plundered Hearts $12.97
Defender of the Crown $9.97 Pool of Radiance 14.97
Destroyer $9.97 Portal $14.97
Double Dragon 2 $9.97 Questron 2 $9.97
Heavy Metal $12.97 Rampage $7.97
Heros of the Lance $14.97 Realms of Darkness $12.97
Impossible Mission 2 $9.97 Roadwars $7.97
Keys to Maramon $9.97 Sidearms $7.97
Mean Streets $9.97 Steel Thunder $9.97
Monopoly $9.97 Strip Poker $14.97
Ms Pacman $9.97 Trump Castle Casino $12.97
Ogre $9.97 Wheel Fortune 1-2-3 $9.97
Pacman $9.97 Zork 1-2-3 $9.97
SPORTS & FLIGHT
4th & Inches $7.97 Sporting News Baseball $9.97
America’s Cup Sailing $7.97 Star Rank Boxing $7.97
Champshp Baseball $7.97 Tenth Frame $9.97
Dave Winfield Batter Up $9.97 Tony LaRussa Baseball $7.97
Fast Break $7.97 Tournament Tennis $7.97
Football/Sublogic $9.97 WWF Wrestling $7.97
Int Hockey $7.97 Acrojet $9.97
Jack Nicklaus Golf $9.97 Apache Strike $7.97
Jordan vs Bird $7.97 F-14 Tomcat $9.97
Leaderboard Golf $9.97 F-15 Strike Eagle $12.97
Pro Football Facts $9.97 F-19 Stealth Fighter $12.97
Pro Soccer $7.97 Jet $14.97
Pure Stat Baseball $9.97 Jet Combat Sim $7.97
Rick Davis Soccer $7.97 Top Gunner $9.97
1581 Drive w/Toolkit $79.95
C-128 RGB Cable $17.95
C-64 Color Mon Cable $8.95
Com Modem Adapter $15.95
Floppy Disk Notcher $6.95
Dust Covers - specify $7.95
Computer Hand 2 $6.95 Capt Grant Joystick $9.95
Convert A Com $24.95 Ergostick Joystick $16.95
Disk Bank 10/3.5" $2.95 CBM 1200 Baud $9.95
Disk Bank 10/5.25" $2.95 Aprotek 2400 Baud $49.95
Disk Bank 100/3.5" $12.95 1351 Smart Mouse $44.95
Disk Bank 100/5.25", $12.95 MW 350 Interface $44.95
Disk Bank 70/5.25" $7.95 64 Power Supplies $34.95
Disk Mailers $0.39 128 Power Supplies $49.95
Drive Cleaners $6.95 Printer Ribbons CALL
Serial Cable 6ft $8.95 Userport Expander $24.95
Serial Cable 10 ft $9.95 Video Ram Upgrade $49.95
Drive Power Cable $7.95
3.5" 10 cnt.Floppy $7.95
5.25" 10 cnt.Floppy $3.95
User Port Cable $15.95
CALL TOLL FREE TODAY!
SOFTWARE SUPPORT
INTERNATIONAL
We Carry America’s Largest Selection of C-64/C-128 Software!
PRODUCTIVITY
1750 Super Clone $99.95
Basic Compiler 64 $12.97
Big Blue Reader $29.97
B/W Prog Tools $14.97
Bob's Term Pro 64 $12.97
B/W Power C $9.97
B/W Turbo Cartridge $14.97
C128 Graphics Bundle $29.97
Christmas Model Kit $9.97
Creative Writer $12.97
CSM Protection Man 1 $14.97
CSM Protection Man 2 $19.97
Data Manager 2 $14.97
Designer's Pencil $9.97
Desk Manager $9.97
Drive Align 1541/71 $12.97
Easy Working Tri Pak $9.97
Fast Load Cart $19.97
Fleet System 3 (128) $14.97
Geos 64 v2 $39.97
Geos 128 v2 $44.97
Graphic Label Wizard $14.97
Graphics Basic $9.97
Home Designer 128 $24.97
Mach 128 Cart $24.97
Manager, The $12.97
Maverick v5 $24.95
Model Diet $9.97
Movie Maker $9.97
Newsroom $14.97
On Line Help $9.97
Outrageous Pages $14.97
Paperclip 3 64/128 $19.97
PFS File & Report $19.97
Postcards $14.97
Printmaster Plus $19.97
Superbase 64 $19.97
Superscript 64/128 $14.97
Swiftcalc w/Sideways $14.97
Term Paper Writer 128 $12.97
EDUCATIONAL
Early Learning Friends $9.97
European Nations & Loc $9.97
Keys to Typing $9.97
Kindercomp (cart) $9.97
Lovejoy’s SAT $12.97
Memory Manor Cart $9.97
Magic Spells $9.97
Reader Rabbit $9.97
Snoopy Sky Scramble $9.97
Items Listed Above Do Not Include Shipping. U.S 48 States - Add $5.50
per order. Alaska, Hawaii & Canada - add $5.50 for the first piece and
$1.00 per each additional piece per shipment. Second Day Air shipping
is available. Call for shipping charges. Call Or Write For Your Free c-
64/128 Catalog Listing HUNDREDS Of Commodore Products And
Special Offers For Your Computer. Our Order Takers Are On Duty 6:00
a.m. - 5:00 p.m. M - F and 7:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Sat. - Pacific Time
Snoopy Writer $9.97
Spell It $12.97
Spellicopter $9.97
Stickybear ABCs $9.97
Stickybear Math $9.97
Stickybear Numbers $9.97
Typing Tutor 4 $9.97
Word Attack $9.97
Word Spinner $9.97
Software Support Int.
SOFWARE 2700 N.E. Andresen Rd.
Suite A-10
Clip ant Vancouver, Wa 98661
D (360) 695-1393
1-800-356-1179
Major Credit Cards Accepted.
»)
C QO N
ISSUE 8 .
THE NEWS MAGAZINE FOR COMMODORE 64 & 128 USERS
GENERAL MANAGER
Charles R. Christianson
Sd
Epiror
Doug Cotton
Re
TECHNICAL Epitor
Mark Fellows
. 4
ADVERTISING SALES
Charles A. Christianson
413-525-0023
. 4
PHOTOGRAPHY
Wayne Wrubel
. 4
Grapuic Arts
Doug Cotton
>
Etectronic Pre-Press & PRINTING
Mansir/Holden, Inc.
©
Cover Design by Doug Cotton
Commodore World is in no way affiliated with Commodore
Business Machines, Inc. Commodore World is published 8
times annually by Creative Micro Designs, Inc., 15 Benton
Drive, East Longmeadow MA 01028-0646, Second-Class
Postage Paid at East Longmeadow MA, Annual subscription
rate is US$29.95 for U.S. addresses, US$35.95 for Canada or
Mexico, US$45.95 for all EC Countries, and US$57.95 to all
other addresses worldwide, All subscription payments must be
providedin U.S. Dollars, Mail subscriptions toCW Subscriptions,
c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East
Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.
Entire contents copyright © 1995 by Creative Micro
Designs, Inc., unless otherwise noted. No part of this
publication may be printed or otherwise reproduced by any
means without prior written consent from the publisher, All
programs published in this publication are for the personal uso
of the reader, and may not be copied or in any way distributed.
All rights reserved. Programming examplos and routines In this
issue which are presented for educational purposes may be
used in the creation of programs by the purchaser of this of this
magazine, provided credit for the routines is clearly presented
in either the program documentation, or the program itself.
Creative Micro Designs, Inc., assumes no responsibility for
errors or omissions in editorial, program listings or advertising
content. Creative Micro Designs, Inc., does not assume any
liability for advertisers’ claims.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: CW Addross
Changes, c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East
Longmeadow MA 01028-0646.
VOLUME 2 .
FEATURES
8
20 Commopore Wortn’s Guin To RAM Expansion by Gene Barker
What can RAM Expansion devices do for you?
24 Wuat You SHoutp Know Asout GEOS & RAM Expansion by Maurice Randall
All of the current crop of RAM Expanders work with GEOS. Find out how!
Reviews
30 Sortware: LoTromaN & LOTTOMAN II by Sherry Freedline
Will this suite of programs make you a winner?
31 Accessories: Leroy’s CHEATSHEETS by Sherry Freedline
Improve your ability to locate common commands quickly.
31 Booxware: Ram Dos 128 Case Stupy by Jim Brain
If it’s technical insight you're after, here's one just for you.
32 Ganes: MINIVIEWS by Sherry Freedline
Heavenbound, Arkanoid II, The President is Missing, & Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
34 Haroware: Action-REpLay by Sherry Freedline
An all-around cartridge for game-players and programmers alike.
CoLuMNS
16 Just For STARTERS by Steve Vander Ark
Try some very simple BASIC programming.
18 Foreign EXCHANGE by Joseph Gaudl
Will the next war be over computing issues?
36 GRAPHIC INTERPRETATION by Steve Vander Ark
Find out what's the latest goings-on in GEOSdom.
38 GEOPROGRAMMIST by Maurice Randall
Adding more capabilities to our own dialog box.
42 Basic INSTINCTS by Gene Barker
Part 2 of a series on writing BASIC input subroutines.
46 Haro Tips: RAMLINK MopiFicATIONs by Mark Fellows & Doug Cotton
Direct access to an REU in RAMLink while using a SwiftLink.
47 PEeRIPHERAL VISION by Jim Butterfield
Part 1 of a series on Relative file programming.
50 Carrier DETECT by Gaelyne R. Moranec
54
Speciat Report: Commopore Assets Soin! by Jason Compton
Commodore is finally laid to rest as Escom gets the rights.
Learn to navigate on the World Wide Web.
Over THe EoGe by Gaelyne R. Moranec
Lists can be fun if you don’t mind being categorized now and then.
DEPARTMENTS
2 From tHe Epitor 12 User Group CONNECTION
4 Backtalk 14 Top Tips
7 Commopore Trivia 56 CuassiFico Aps
10 ON THe Horizon 56 Apverriser’s INDEx
12 THe CONNECTION See Our
CHK-LIST
Utility
On Page 45
NUMBER 3
COMMODORE WORLD
a computing with our
Commodores has
reached a new
4 chapter.. or so it
would seem. With
i the results of the
auctioning offofCommodore'’sassets finally in, there’s
a new company at the helm. Where will this new
company lead us?
Undoubtedly, there are few of those among us who
wouldn't like to know the answer to that question. But
certainly, it’s far too soon to tell, far too early for
even the new owners to havea clear
picture of where they're going or
how they'll eventually get there.
But ifanything at allis apparent,
it is this: gone are the days of
struggling with Commodore
over support for C-64 and
128. If the new owners
are as difficult to deal
with as past Commodore
TSE
management has been, so be
it—we're no worse off. If, on the
other hand, the new owners are as
open to new ideas and licensing of
technology as they have thus far
indicated, we could very well be on
our way to a renewed vitality for our long-time
computerized companions.
I'll skip the details of who the new owners are, and
how they came to own Commodore's rights; Jason
Compton, Editor of Amiga Report has provided us
with all that information in his special report located
elsewhere in this issue. Facts? There aren't many to go
on yet. But there’s plenty of room for rampant
speculation, and I've got plenty of that to go around,
The calls have come in regularly from users
everywhere. Everyone wants to know what will happen.
Will there be new 64's? 128’s? Will the new owners
From THe Epiror
: he future of
“WE COULD
VERY WELL
BE ON OUR
WAY TOA
RENEWED
VITALITY FOR
LONG-TIME
COMPUTERIZED
COMPANIONS.
produce the C-65 that Commodore came so close to
completing before scrapping the plan altogether? Will
there be parts, or new supplies of peripherals? The
questions seem unending.
We do know that the C-64 will be produced, and in
fact, some reports lead us to believe that it is already in
production. We now know that it will be marketed in
at least some corner of the world. It's doubtful that the
new owners will themselves attempt any marketing of
the C-64 or the 128 in North America. The same goes
for the many peripherals common to our 8-bit
machines. But with the computer back in known
production, we shouldn't have to worry as much
about parts being hard to come
by, and if anyone on this side of
the globe has enough interest in
marketing or manufacturingany
of the 8-bit products, the way
seems clear for that
possibility.
We've all gone
through a long wait to
see exactly what would
become of Commodore's
assets; and now that this part is
over, we'll no doubt have to wait
a bit more to see what can and
will be done to continue or to
further the future of our favorite
computing platform.
But while we wait for those answers to arrive, we can
thrive on the fact that it’s now more a matter of “will it
be done?” than a matter of “can it be done?”
Doug Cotton
Editor
Issue 8
| Folcroft East Business Park 313 Henderson Dr
610-586-5701
610-586-5704
610-586-5706
/1541-2 Drives
These are completely NEW &
boxed by Commodore from their
latest production run. Includes all
Cabling, Manuals, and Disks.
Hurry as supplies are limited.
$89.95
| CBM Test Kit.
$24.95
29.95
128 Diagnostic Cart. w/Manual
64 Dead Test Cart. w/Manual
Last Chance ~
Parts
We have just acquired the last batch
of Commodore factory repair parts
and assemblies. All parts have a 60
Day Warranty through Software Hut.
Hurry as supplies are limited.
CBM Partt Description Price
1540002-01 1541 Internal P.S. $12.95
1540048-01 1541 PCBAssmALPS 19.95
1540048-03 1541 PCBAssmNEWT 19.95
250448-01 PCB Assm 15418 19.95
250471-01 PCB Assm 1581 22.95
250735-02 Keyboard 1280 22.95
250772-01 Power Supply 1571 18.95
251053-10 Power Supply 64/64C 9-22.95
310379-02 PCB Assm 128 80.00
310420-01 PCB Assm 1571 22.95
318264-01 Commodore Joystick 5.95
326166-04 Keyboard 64 14.95
390205-01 Heavy Duty 64/64C P.S. 32.95
516402-02 64 Computer, ReCon. 109.95
601210-66 MPS 1200Printhead 24.95
128 Motherboard - Complete $64.95
128D Motherboard - Complete 64,95
64C Motherboard - Complete 54.95
C128 Power Supply - External 39.95
C128D Power Supply - Internal 24.95
1541-2 or 1581 Power Supply 19.95
Commodore Manuals
User Manual 128 Computer $9.9
User Manual 1700/1750 RAM 888
User Manual 1351 Mouse 5.95
User Manual 1764 RAM 6.95
Service Manual 1581 Drive 19.95
Service Manual MPS 1000 Printer 19,95
User Manual 1802 Monitor 5.95
User Manual MPS 1250 Printer 7.95
Intro Manual 1280 4,95
User Manual 2002 Monitor 7.95
User Manual 64C 6.95
User Manual 601 Printer 7.95
User Manual 802 Printer 7.95
User Manual 1702 Monitor 7.95
Volume 2, Number 3
Games & Closeouts |
Airborne Ranger
Bad Blood rr
Below the Root 10.00
Big Boggle 14.00
Blackjack Academy 12,95
Chomp 12.95
Deja Vu 9,00
Demolition Mission - Space Racer 6.00
Dolphin's Rune 5.00
Felony! 9.00
Gateway to the Savage Frontier 14.00
Impossible Mission 2 8.95
Jack Attack cartridge 5.00
Jeopardy 1, 2, Jr, Sports (Specify) 10.00
Learning Bridge Made Easy 9.00
Moonmist 12.00
Navy Seals 12.95
PathWords 9.00
Plundered Hearts 12.00
President Is Missing 9.95
Rambo 2 6.00
Risk 17,00
Secrets of the Silver Blades 14.00
Shoot’em Up Construction Kit 12.00
Stationtall 12,00
Swiss Family Robinson 10.00
Tass Times in Tone Town 9.00
Test Pilot Bundle (ATF, Crazy Cars,
Tomahawk, Harrier, Infiltrator 2) 15.00
Three Stooges 12.95
Tony LaRussa Baseball 12.00
Tony LaRussa Teams (Specify) 7,00
View to a Kill 9.00
Weird Dreams 11.00
Wheel of Fortune 1,2,Gold Jr (Specify) 10. °
Where (Specify) is Carmen S. 0.7 27,
Who Framed Roger Rabbit 22: Ps
World Games 12.00
Wrath of the Demon 22.00
Pome ose =—=Ss
|Peripherals ‘Si
) Accessories
1670 Modem - 1200 Baud, New,
Boxed. Super Special Price, while
supplies last - $19.95
1660 Modem - 300 Baud - $9.95
1351 Mouse - New, unboxed -$32.95
Micro R&D Printer Interface - For non-
CBM parallel printers, supports graphics
$49.95
Suncom Icontroller - Limited supply of
this jaystick/mouse classic - $29.95
5 or 8 pin Composite Cable $14.95
C128 to Magnavox/1084 (Specity) 14.95
Computer/Disk Drive Cable-6 ft. 12.95
Surge Protector w/EMI (6 Outlet) 14,00
1084S Monitor Call
1802 Monitor by Commodore 149.95
We stock Printer Ribbons for:
MPS 801, 802, 803, 1525, 1526, 1000,
1200, 1250 - $7.00 each
Specity your printer when ordering
Orders 800-932-6442 |
¢ SPECIAL OFFER * Receive either Master Type Typing cartridge or Jack Attack
marrige for only we 00 additional with sl order - piled valued at $49.00
— ”
Program
Is your C64 or 64C broken?
Can't find any place to repair it? We
have, refurbished by Commodore, C64
and 64C computers available. They
include a Full New 90 Day Warranty.
Simply send us your computer (no
power supply or cabling needed) with a
Check, Money Order, or your Credit Card
number for $69.00, plus $10.00
shipping, and we will send you a newly
refurbished computer upon recelval of
your broken unit,
1571 Drives are totally NEW units, with all
cabling, a comprehensive manual, and a full
90 Day Warranty. Bulk packed in plain
boxes. Perfect for your 128 or 1280
computer. Limited supply!
$129.95
Se ee a: ee te
Commodore
1802 Monitor
We have just received a small
batch of this Color-Composite
monitor for C64 users. Complete
with cable. Limited supply!
$139.95
Productivity |
Bank Street Writer
Big Blue Reader 4 *S 00
Oata Manager 2 (64) 22.95
Oome Home Accounting 64.95
GEOS 64 v2.0 42,95
GEOS 128 v2.0 45.00
Geo File 64 or Geo Calc 64 (Specity) 45.00
Geo File 128 or Geo Cale 128 (Specity)52.95
Geo Programmer Call
Geo Publish 64 45.00
Jane 128 44.95
Master Type 8.00
Merlin 128 45.00
News Maker 128 10.00
Personal Choice Coll. (Write File Plan) 29.95
PrintShop 36.95
SwiftCale (64) 22.95
Super 81 Utilities 64-128 (Specity) 14,00
Superbase 64 v3.01 26.95
WordWriter 6 34.95
Commodore
Software H UE siti
Sharon Hill, PA 19079
Hours: ‘Mon- Fri 9 to 6
Sat 10 to 4 - Eastern
Sattwate Hut
1581Drive
EXCLUSIVE
A BRAND NEW production run of 1581s, by
Commodore, has been made available to
Sottware Hut EXCLUSIVELY! These drives
come with Commodore's full 90 Day
Warranty. The drives are complete with all
Cabling & Software, & bulk-packed in plain
boxes. Call for special quantity pricing for
Oealers and Users Groups. We offer these
drives at a SUPER Low Price of:
$89.95
These are the last batch left from
CBM. Refurbished & with a 90
day Warranty. With Keyboard &
Power Cable. Manuals not
included. Perfect as a second
unit.
$179.95
No waiting for your orders to ship.
Orders in by 2PM go out the same day.
Second Day & Overnight shipping Is
available. International orders are
shipped by Air Parcel Post, UPS or DHL.
Domestic orders are shipped UPS.
+ All orders are subject to credit card
veritication «
+ All prices subject to change «
Supplies are limited and on a first-come
first-serve basis. We accept Visa, Master
Card, and Discover, We also ship COD,
accepting Cash, Certified Check, or
Money Order. Software and accessories
shipping is $6.00, Hardware shipping Is
$6.00 for small items, Call for larger
items (ie. Computers). COO add $5.00.
Minimum COD order Is $50.00, Canadian,
APO, & International orders are welcome,
We will bill only for actual shipping
charges & insurance at time of order.
15% re-stocking fee on all returns not
exchanged. Shipping ts NOT refundable.
© Copyngit 1995, tonyAntonuccio gfx. Al Rights Reserved
COMMODORE WORLD
@ACKTALK
LET TERS AND QUESTIONS FROM OUR READERS
Numeric Keypads & Printer
Drivers
Dear CW,
First let me say I have found your magazine a
fine piece of work. Special thanks to you for giving
theinformation on the user port connectors from
Digi-Key. The only place I had ever seen them was
ata Hamfest. I have a 64 “C” with your JiffyDOS
and love it. My problem is sometimes when |
have to type in long lists of numbers, it is slow
going typing them from the this keyboard. I have
thought about buying a 128 but! am ona limited
budget. Is there a way I could add the number
keyboard like the one on the 128 and the other
big boy machines? It would be nice to be able to
place it either to the left or right side of the
keyboard?
Oh yeah, while I am asking questions, do you
know if PRINTSHOP, or anyone else, have new
drivers for the new generation of printers? Last
year my wife bought me a new Star NX-2480 and
a Super Graphix Sr. interface. The Commodore
side of the disk works well, but only with 2 block
graphics. The 3 block side of the disk has a list of
printer drivers but I can’t get anything to print
right. Either I get trash or the document is
stretched down to the next sheet of paper. If not,
do you know if there is a good second choice in
place of PRINTSHOP that does the just as much
or more?
Thank you very much for your time, effort and
your continued support of the “64” (The so called
dead chicken head.). It is a fine machine and
tough as nails (it has tobe, forit to be still working
after I desoldered and soldered that JiffyDOS
chip).
Respectfully,
Tony N. Hughes
Commodore World reserves the right to edit
letters published in this column for length,
spelling, and clarity. If you have questions
or comments, write to: CW Backtalk, c/o
Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646,
East Longmeadow MA 01028.
COMMODORE WORLD
It has been years since I've seen anyone offering the
numeric keypads for a C64, but they did at one time
exist. Perhaps we can look into making one for an
upcoming installment of Hard Tips.
The Print Shop has never been updated to handle
modern (24-pin) printers. We offered some
suggestions in CW Issue 2 (Top Tips, pg. 14) on how
to get 24-pin printers to work with some older
applications, but these may or may not work with
your particular copy of The Print Shop. Some answers
to why modern printers don't work well with many of
the older applications appeared in an article by Ron
Hackley (of FGM Connection) in CW Issue 3 (Top
Tips, pg. 14). One program I might recommend is
Ron's very own Fun Graphics Machine. It’s a bit
more complex to use than The Print Shop, but can do
much more. I'm not certain if Ron has started
including 24-pin printer drivers yet, but I do know
he’s been working on them, and can probably assist
you with getting FGM working with your printer.
Butterflies are Free?
Dear CW,
Thank you. From your JiffyDOS to your
RAMLink to Commodore World magazine.
Thank you.
May a thousand spectral-colored butterflies
descend upon your window sills each morning.
Sincerely,
Dale Bryant
Hey, as long as they clean up after themselves, I'm all
for it. And you're quite welcome.
Help Articles: 2, GEOS: 0
Dear CW,
The article, Anatomy Of The Printed Page by
Don Radler wasa real joytoread, andshouldhelp
us Commodore users understand laying out a
page a little better.
Also the article Word Tools by Gaelyne R.
Moranec, was another nice article to read and
learn from. | think most of us Commodore users
that are still using their Commodores are not
gamers or GEOS users. From the twenty or so
4
Commodore users that I know, only one of them
uses GEOS applications. This program is just too
over-copy-protected to be of any real used to
most of us Commodore users.
Word Processing articles are a big help among
Commodore users.
Articles telling us Commodore users how
someone does something with their Commodore,
are very helpful. Printing articles, how to format
a page, which program was use to get the end
results.
Showing these results, so the reader can see the
finished paper. For my word processing, | use the
program The Write Stuff. And as my computer
knowledge grows, this great program also grows,
live ina small town, with twenty Commodore
users. We have had a Commodore club for 10
years, a BBS for over nine years.
Give up my 64! 1 think not, I have only started
to learn a little of the many things it can do.
Phil Lindsey
Thanks, Phil. I'm sure the authors of the articles you
mentioned will be pleased to hear you enjoyed their
work, And certainly we plan to have more articles on
how to make use of some of the fine software we have
available to us. In our next issue, in fact, [believe we'll
be running an article on what often seems to be the
most mysterious of productivity programs:
spreadsheets.
Concerning GEOS, I might have to disagree a bit.
Certainly it isn't for everyone-and there's a tendency
to either love or loathe the GEOS products. But from
ourvantage point, [can tell you that GEOS is probably
the hottest selling productivity package for the
Commodore. GEOS does, however, require a little
more than a minimum hardware configuration to be
really enjoyable-not many 1541-only system users
will take an instant liking to the program.
While the initial installation is sometimes tough
for new users, I don't see the copy-protection as being
anywhere near as bad as you'll find on many other
programs, After all, GEOS provides every owner with
a Backup System disk in case your original goes bad,
and the applications can all be freely copied to work
disks after installation, There are even reasonably
inexpensive ways to make your own backup boot
Issue 8
The return of the HD-20 was so
successful that we’ve sold out...
A lot of Commodore users saw the value in our
HD-20 offer, and they jumped on it. We're willing
to bet that right about now, they’re happy they
did. But if you’re one of the users who missed that
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together another
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And you get the same reliability and support that
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even more than that—20 Megabytes more as a
matter of fact. Because now you can buy a CMD
HD-40 for only $30 more. That's right. Twice the
capacity for only 10 percent more. But you'd
better hurry—this deal can’t last forever!
The Power of a CMD HD-40.
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To Order Yours, Call 1-800-638-3263.
See full CMD advertisement elsewhere in this issue for shipping prices.
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Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
Volume 2, Number 3
COMMODORE WORLD
disks, using utilities like geoMakeBoot or Maverick.
About the only bad side-effect of GEOS’ copy-
protection that I can think of is that you'll have
trouble getting “used” GEOS applications to work
with your system, since GEOS assigns a unique serial
number to each system and the applications are
keyed to work only with that serial number after
installation, But given the fact that you can easily
make use of newly purchased applications on
something other than the 1541 disk they come on (a
real boon to users with 3.5" disk drives, hard drives,
and RAM devices), I think the positive attributes
outweigh this singular negative one.
Sad Farewell
Dear CW,
Please cancel the extension to my subscription,
Commodore World is not meeting my needs.
As a hobbyist, my favorite part has been
Advanced Techniques followed closely by Hard
Tips. These two columns showed great promise
and I had hoped they would grow further along
the lines they first showed and get even deeper
(such as midi, interface chips, simple robotics,
etc.). Unfortunately, over the last few issues Hard
Tips has gotten shallower and now Advanced
Techniques has been completely dropped.
Run and Gazette were completely useless to
me because they always seemed stuckin perpetual
beginners mode. Sadly, CW looks like it's going
toadopt this same philosophy. [mean how many
times can you keep RUNning “What order to
turn on your peripherals” type articles.
Don't get me wrong, I understand there are
always new users who need their needs met too
and there has to be variety or anyone would get
bored. But I feel advanced users are the ones
more often ignored, Just because we're ready and
can handle advanced level topics doesn't mean
we already know the stuff. And I think with
something like the 64 the ratio of users leans
much more towards the intermediate/advanced.
How about a poll to find out? Or a readers’ vote
onwhich columns they want and what else they'd
like tosee? What about it, readers? Does this click
with anyone else or am | all wet?
[really dolike Commodore Worldor|wouldn’t
have written this letter, I would have just
cancelled. My subscription ends in two issues
and I'm going to wait until then to decide whether
or not to resubscribe, [ hope it improves by then.
Ifnot | honestly can’t see spending almost $30 a
year for ads and information I knew in ’87.
Tim George
While we're always saddened to lose a valued
subscriber, we have to admit that we can't always be
COMMODORE WORLD
everything to everyone. Our decision to drop the
Advanced Techniques column wasn't an easy one,
but was a logical decision based a number reasons.
Advanced Techniques has historically been written
mostly in-house, because we've received very few
articles from outside authors that would qualify for
the column, In-house writing tends to delay release of
issues, since it takes away from time normally devoted
to layout and editing. Advanced Techniques was
originally intended to deal primarily with machine
language programming, and we'll be adding a new
machine language column soon, Given these facts, it
seemed reasonable to drop Advanced Techniques.
We will, however, run occasional articles under that
moniker in addition to the new ML column.
With respect to Hard Tips, there’s going to be both
‘heavy’ and ‘light’ fare covered. We'll be striving to
alternate more evenly between the two, but again, it
wouldn't be possible to please everyone with every
installment without doing two projects per issue; and
we simply don't have the time or the room to spare for
doing that.
Draw & Print
Dear CW,
Ihave only recently become one of your readers
but have already put some of your tips to good use
(i.e., the Hard Tips in Issue 6 on installing drive
number switches ona Commodore 128D internal
disk drive; it is working perfectly). I like your
magazine and hope it is here for the long haul.
Ihave afew problems that lam hoping you can
help me solve. The first is that even though I love
my Commodore computer, there are a few
hardware devices that IBM owners have that make
me envious. The first is the drawing tablet they
have for use in art programs. Drawing with my
mouse on the graphic programs | useis like trying
to bail out a sinking battleship with a teaspoon.
Please don’t get me wrong, a mouse is very good
for pointing at icons on the GEOS desktop, but I
don’t think they were ever intended for use in
serious drawing programs. Is there a drawing
tablet for use with Commodore computers? If
not, can an IBM model be made to work with our
computers and software? If all else fails, is it
possible that CMD might someday make a
drawing tablet and software for my C-128D? I
have started to use a graphic program called
I-Paint, and I find it quite good but it still uses a
mouse to draw with, and1 think that this seriously
limits its usefulness.
On another matter, | need to upgrade my
printer, What would you suggest would be the
best printer and printer interface combination? |
use mostly GEOS, I-Paint, and Advanced Art
Studio programs. I am willing to put as much
6
money into it as needed to get quality printing
results, butdon’tunderstand much about printer
technology. So I could use all the help that I can
get.
Thank you for one great magazine and for
taking the time to read my letter.
James Logan Davis
Thanks for the compliments; we certainly plan to he
around for the ‘long haul’, On to your questions...
There definitely were at least two drawing tablets
made for the 64/128, perhaps more. Probably the
most popular of these was the Koala Pad. As you
might guess, thiscame from the same folks who created
the Koala graphics file format which has been so
commonly used on the Commodore for years. The bad
news is that none of devices have been made for years,
and you'll rarely see them even in the used market. 1
watch many of the ‘for sale’ posts on a number of
telecommunications networks, and I'd guess that I
see a Koala Pad for sale about once a month. I've had
very limited exposure to these devices myself, but I
wasn toverly impressed with them on those occasions,
I was reminded somewhat of the light pens I'd tried
years ago... try as you might to draw a straight line or
a circle, you generally got less than optimum results.
Of course, this can’t be blamed entirely on the input
device... after all, we're dealing with a screen that
has—by today’s standards—relatively low resolution.
Most ‘dazzling’ artwork you'll see on the 64 has in
almost every case heen created by careful pixel editing,
though in some cases it may have been ported from
some other type of computer and ‘dithered’down into
something that the Commodore can display well.
Odds are slim that CMD will create a new drawing
tablet or attempt to interface one from another
platform, While such products might be desirable,
theyservearathersmall niche and would be expensive
(consider that most drawing tablets on other platforms
cost more than you probably paid for your computer),
Moving on to your question about printers, 'd
recommend looking for a used Star NX-1000
Rainbow. I'm only guessing, but it seems like color is
an important factor to you, based on the other
comments in your letter. Ifyou were only using GEOS,
then a modern 24-pin color printer or color ink-jet
printer would serveyou well; but the other applications
you mentioned (specifically the Advanced Art Studio)
are less likely to work with these suggestions. As far as
interfaces go, there's only one currently being
manufactured that would be suitable for your specific
needs: the MW-350, available from CMD, SSI, and
possibly some other sources, Again, you may find
something else in the used market, like the Xetec Super
Graphix, which wasprobably one of the best interfaces
for the price.
%)
Issue 8
dy Jim Brain
Welcome to another edition of Commodore Trivia. As
many of you may know, these trivia questions and
answers have been donated by me to the Commodore
community at large. Unlike other articles in
Commodore World, these trivia questions have been
placed in the public domain. | ask only that the trivia
questions remain intact and unchanged, and that my
$060
$061
$062
$058
name and address appear somewhere so users can
contact me. The trivia is also used fora contest I run on
the Internet; contact me at the included address for
more information. Because curiosity has the best of
me, | always welcome a note or postcard detailing
where the trivia goes. | always welcome new
questions—provided they come with answers. Enjoy.
Jim Brain
Brain Innovations, Inc.
602 North Lemen
Fenton, MI 48430
COMMODORE TRIVIA #7 QUESTIONS
When you turn on stock Commodore 16, how many bytes free does it, S068
report?
eneo
$069
How many does a stock Plus/4 report?
What was the VIC-20’s subtitle? SO6A
What personality announced the birth ofthe Commodore 64inChristmas $068
advertisements?
What was the name of the monitor program included in the Plus/4? 5 0.6(
How many sectors per track are there for tracks 1-17 ona 1541? $06D
There are two programs running in the Commodore single-6502 drives S068
(1541,1571,1541 I1,1581). What is the interpreter program called?
How do you do a hard reset on a Plus/4 ?
Where did the name “Commodore” come from?
Chuck Peddle, designer of the 6502, left Commodore twice, Where did he
go first?
Where did he eventually go when he left for good?
What does the Kernal routine at $FFD2 do in terms of function and what
parameters get passed and returned?
What Commodore drive has a hidden message?
What computer was the first to have a hidden message?
What was it and how did you get it to come up?
What does NTSC stand for?
COMMODORE TRIVIA #6 ANSWERS
The Commodore 1551 connected via the expansion port. Therefore, it
was a parallel device, and could work at much faster speeds.
Two, The second drive cable attached to the back of the first cable. $059
The two drives were mapped into the Address space at $fecO and $fef0 of
the Plus/4 or C-16. The 6523 Triple Interface Adaptor chip is mapped in
at these locations and has 8 registers each.
This has two equally valid answers. On the Vie-20, each sound generator
has a range of 3 octaves. However, all the sound generators together can
range 5 octaves, since each sound generator is staggered one octave apart.
The infamous Adam Osborne, of Osborne I fame. $05C
I neglected to note that the Commodore 64 packing box has underwent
many changes. However, for quite a while, CBM used a blue box with
many views of the 64, and a specification list on side of the box. On that
spec list, it claims that the the 64 can have “256 independently controlled
objects, 8 on one line.” Why is this important? It gives us a clue that the
VIC-II designers figured people would and could use the interrrupts on
the VIC-II to change sprite pointers.
The package was called “3+1".
Lotus 1-2-3.
Depending on whom you believe, the SX stands for two things. If you
choose to believe Jack Tramiel, the SX stands for “sex”, since Jack has been
quoted as saying, “Business is like sex, You have to be involved”. This is a
plausible answer, as Jack usually picked the names of the computers.
However, if you don’t buy that, here is the marketing version. SX stands
for Single Drive Executive, as the portable 64 was called the Executive 64.
Volume 2, Number 3 ré
There was to have been a DX model, which would have had two drives.
You decide.
Bob Yannes, who also worked on one of the VIC prototypes, developed
this chip.
A whopping 2 kilobytes. If you plugged in the BASIC cartridge, memory
dropped to .5 kilobyte or 512 bytes. No wonder CBM scrapped this one.
William Shatner. Yes, Captain James T. Kirk himself did the ads, He was
not, however, in uniform, since CBM did not have rights to Star Trek of
any sort.
Anchor Automation. Sometimes called the “Most Inexpensive Modem”,
the VICModem was designed to be sold for under $100 when most were
$400 or more. The secret to the cost containment was the ability to use
what we sometimes think of as a disadvantage of the User Port to the
modem’'s advantage. The TTL level RS-232 signals did not need to be
buffered before driving the modem, and the +5 volt power available
through the User Port just was not available through normal RS-232 lines.
Not having the already TTL level signals would have meant extra
components that would have increased case size and cost, and not having
the on-board power would have meant a power connector and power
supply would need to be bundled. Being one of those people who used the
first VICModem, I can tell you it was worth the hassle.
RUN Magazine. As of right now, CMD has purchased the rights to RUN.
(a) ivory, (b) chocolate brown, and (c) mustard.
Bahamas. Doing so gave CBM a great tax break. With the tax rate in the
Bahamas as low as 1%, more money could be kept from the governments.
,
COMMODORE WORLD
SPECIAL REPORT:
ommodore Assets Sold!
dy Jason Compton, Editor of Amiga Report
April 21st, 1995 may not mean much to
historians; but to millions of Commodore
computer users worldwide, it meant the dawn of
anew age.
On that day, in the United States Bankruptey
Court of New York, the vast bulk of the assets of
Commodore International, Ltd. were auctioned
off. The Bahamas based company controlled all
of the patents, technology, and intellectual
property of Commodore, as well as a substantial
amount of the remaining inventory of
Commodore parts and machines. The rest is held
by semi-autonomous holding companies not
directly answerable to Commodore International.
The Players
The technology of Commodore, most notably
the Amiga line, had been courted for many
months, Initially, interest was attributed to such
companies as Samsung, Philips, and Amstrad,
but their interest quickly waned. By the end of
1994, three major players were visible: Alex Amor,
president of Creative Equipment International,
the largest US distributor of Amigas and Amiga
products; the management team of Commodore
UK in the form of David Pleasance and Colin
Proudfoot; and Escom AG, the second-largest PC
clone maker in Germany.
Asthe months passed, Amorand the UK group
vach presented their views for the future.
Pleasance had a monthly syndicated column in
the Amiga magazines of Great Britain and used
the winter World of Amiga show at Wembley
Stadium to present his case to users and
developersalike. Amor communicated often with
users online, holding 5 online conferences that
were put in print worldwide. ['scom remained
silent, and the best information available
indicated that their primary interest was in the
Commodore trade name—still highly valued in
the German market.
Escom Makes Waves
Time passed without much resolution or event—
and the value ofthe Commodore assets continued
to plummet. By December, all remaining
Commodore engineers had been laid off. In
February and March, though, the pot started to
boil. It was learned that Escom had obtained the
Commodore trademarks—not from Commodore
COMMODORE WORLD
International, which claimed control of all
Commodore marks—but from Commodore
Germany, a company in liquidation itself. The
sale was disputed and Escom was threatened with
an injunction, As a compromise, Escom
submitted a $5 million bid for Commodore
International’s assets, which would then make
their acquisition of the German marks legitimate.
A formal agreement and legal code were
established and a contract between Commodore
International's trustees and Escom were signed
in March, with an auction to be held on April
20th, at the offices of the liquidator’s lawyers.
The Auction That Wasn’t
Theauction was expected to bea heated three-way
contest between Escom, Amor, and the
Pleasance/Proudfoot team, The outcome was
much less dramatic, however. Two bids were
submitted to challenge Escom’s: one from
Computer Connection, a California company,
which was rejected for lack ofa sufficient deposit.
The other was submitted by Dell Computers with
Alex Amor’s backing. Dell's bid, while greater
than Escom’s $5 million, was rejected because it
violated the liquidator’s no-condition rule. Dell's
bid hinged on a 30-day “review period” for the
Commodore patents, to ensure their legal
viability. Pleasance and Proudfoot did not bid
andissueda statement offormal withdrawal later
that day.
On To Bankruptcy Court
The following day Escom’s bid went up for court
approval. Dell attempted to challenge Escom by
submitting a $15 million bid, which met with
instant criticism from Escom, who claimed that
theiraccepted bid was no longer subject to outside
competition. The Commodore creditors seemed
interested in Dell's offer, as it represented three
times what Escom was willing to pay. Judge
William Garrity, Jr. called a 3-hour recess to
encourage the parties to sort out the issue. When
court resumed, Escom had increased its bid to
nearly $12 million, a figure acceptable to the
Commodore creditors. The deal was approved.
Roughly a week and a half later, the formality of
Bahamian court approval was completed, and
Escom paid the balance of the contract.
Escom Announces Plans
While Escom was virtually silent before the
auction, in the weeks that followed they put outa
flurry of press releases announcing their
intentions for the cornucopia of technology they
acquired, The key strategies involve restarting
the Commodore 64 line forsalein Eastern Europe
and China, producing the Amiga 1200, 4000,
CD32, and 600 for worldwide sales, making use
of the Commodore name fora line of PC and Mac
clones, and licensing out the technology liberally.
Indeed, atleast two licenses have been announced,
one to Tianjin Family-Issued Multimedia, a
Chinese company and Escom’s contract
manufacturer, the other to Visual Information
Services Corporation of the US. They have
appointed Dr. Peter Kittel, a former Commodore
Germany employee with many years of
experience, as theirhead of engineering. Arguably
one of the most important concerns—that of a
North American distribution channel—has not
been addressed by Escom as of yet, but newly
manufactured product has been projected for
September by Manfred Schmitt, President and
majority owner of Escom.
Escom’s European distribution plans include
the use of their extensive chain of retail outlets
and continued support of independent dealers.
Their recent acquisition of the large Rumbelows
chain ofelectronics storesin the United Kingdom
has lead some to refer to them as the largest
computer chain in Europe, with stores already
established in several Continental countries.
Unresolved Issues
The dust has not fully settled yet. There is still the
issue of a rather large amount of Commodore
property stored ina Philippines warehouse under
the direct control of a Netherlands-based
Commodore holding company, which would
greatly facilitate Escom’s short-term operations
but has not been sold yet. There also remains the
issue, for what remains of Commodore
International, to pay off its creditors as best it
can, perhaps by investigating allegations of
mismanagement. But that is now officially
someone else’s problem. At least for now, the
legacy of Commodore has a new home in
Heppenheim, Germany.
©)
’
Issue 8
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Bounce around mazes fixing
bricks and gathering bonuses
while avoiding obstacles in
Pogo Stick, a multi-level
arcade style game for the 64,
Fix all the bricks before the
hour glass empties to go to
the next level.
Either game ciliata meer Both games are for a
only $11.95 order (in US funds) to: standard Commodore
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PA 17042-0224 ptional.
Super Pogo Stick Adds:
© 25 different mazes (with the
ability to use even more)
© More obstacles & bonuses
© Ability to Save and Load
Both games
for $19. 95
Volume 2, Number 3 9
It's Cool
CKit 94 is a powerful collection of backup utilities designed to take
advantage of the expanded Commodore systems of the 90's. In fact
the CKit is so advanced,
Commodore systems.
we recommend it only for certain
If You Have One Of These
Commodore 64, 64C, 128, or 128D
And One Of These
CMD RAMLink, PPI RAMDrive, or a 17XX REU with JiffyDOS
And At Least One Of These
Commodore 1541/1571/1581 or any CMD Storage Device
@ YOU NEED THE CKIT 94!
It's Mean
CKit 94 can view, select, and copy over 1,000 files! It can also copy
entire 41/71/81 disks in ONE pass. It can even make the next copy
directly from RAM. With the CKit you can squeeze over 700 files into
an archive. Even more, you can squeeze your 41/71/81 disks and
CMD partitions into backup files. All of this power is at your
command through an easy to use menu driven interface.
File Utilities
Filemaster file copier and the Archiver file squeezer
Disk Utilities
Procopy disk copier and the 41/71/81/Native Boa disk squeezers
BBS Utilities
New Dissolver SDA maker and fast PD Decompers
It's Better
CKit 94 has 2 X faster and tighter compression than in’ previous
versions, All of the utilities have been enhanced for power and speed.
Plus, it has three new powerful utilities. And it takes full advantage of
Commodore 128's and REU's. Wow!
Check Out The Support
Y Commodore 1541/157 1/1581 Drives
Y CMD Hard Drives/Floppy Drives/RAMLinks
Jv PPI RAMDrives
JY Commodore 128 VDC RAM Support (16K and 64K)
¥ Commodore 128 2MHz Enhanced Mode Support
¥ Commodore 17XX REU Support (up to 16Meg)
¥ RAMLink and RAMDrive DACC Support (up to 16Mez)
Get Your Copy Now!
CKit 94 is available at fine Commodore mail order outlets such as
Creative Micro Designs. You may also order directly from us.
Mad Man Software, Inc.
1400 East College Drive
Cheyenne, WY 82007
(307) 632-1178 Information
Enclose Check or Money Order for:
CKit 94 $39.95 (Update $9.95) plus
Shipping $5 US and Canada ($10 Foreign)
Update uses Key from earlier version
COMMODORE WORLD
COMMODORE AND COMPUTER INDUSTRY NEws
Grapevine Group Successor Corporation Formed
The Grapevine Group, Inc., along time supplier to the Commodore 64/128
market was forced to cease operations last year, as previously reported in
Commodore World Issue 4. According to one of The Grapevine Group's
principals, Mr. Joel Kornreich, “When Commodore announced their official
Chapter7 bankruptcy in April (1994), [let go most ofmy employeesas sales
had slowed considerably. Within the same month a large bank holding our
line of credit for $350,000, not only would not renew the line of credit but
demanded the money back within 24 hours.”
Mr. Kornreich contends that when the Bank got wind of the fact that
Commodore Business Machine had filed for voluntary liquidation, that it
lost faith in the market and questioned his company’s ability to continue
operations and repay outstanding notes against their line of credit. As a
result of this action by the bank, according to Mr. Kornreich, “we were
fighting with the bank and things got progressively worse. The bank
executed the UCC lien and froze our warehouse withallinventory, including
equipment belonging to customers. This happened on August 26th (1994)!
This wasacourt action and everything was sealed with lock and key. Shortly
thereafter the bank obtained a court order to seize all corporate accounts
and my personal accounts. They froze our ability to do any sales or return
any merchandise to customers.” According to Lexow, Berbit & Finkelstein,
the law firm representing The Grapevine Group in this matter, Grapevine
“relinquished control of its assets to [the bank] on August 26, 1994 when
it agreed to give up access to its inventory. An attempted settlement of the
matter was not successful.”
Numerous questions have been posed to Commodore World Magazine
concerning The Grapevine Group. Many of these inquires have been
complaints that material shipped to Grapevine for repair had not been
returned and that merchandise ordered had been billed, but was never
received. Mr. Kornreich assures us that he intends to return all customer
owned equipment and to the extent possible, he will ship items which were
paid for and not shipped because of the seizure of his inventory. He added
that these customers should contact him by calling (914) 578-619, or by
writing to him at P.O. Box 660, Nanuet, NY 10954.
Recent letters to this magazine tend to support Mr. Kornreich’s claim of
assistance to those adversely affect by the demise of Grapevine. Mr. Thomas
A. Hollinger writes, “lastyear I had the worst experience ofall with Mailorder,
1 ordered four C64 motherboards from Grapevine for a total of over
$200.00. That was in March 1994. I never received the boards. I called the
Mid Hudson Better Business Bureau and filed a formal complaint. This was
the second time I have done this. They couldn't help me and suggested I
contact the small claims court in New York, Then one day a Commodore
friend of mine gave mea copy of your magazine, Commodore World. There
in black and white was Global, which is now Systems Repair Co. The article
explained how Global was obtaining [Grapevine's inventory]. So | called
and explained my dilemma. I spoke with a gentleman named Joel who |
found out later was the man in charge. He was very helpful and wanted to
assist in correcting Grapevine’s failures. Since then Systems Repair has sent
COMMODORE WORLD
10
me two motherboards with a promise of two more later. I informed him
that substitutions would be acceptable like power supplies and chips.”
Mr. Kornreich is now involved with a new corporation which supplies
parts for the Commodore 64/128 and Amiga. The name of this company is
Paxtron Corporation, with offices at 28 Grove St., Spring Valley, New York
10977, telephone number (914)578-6522 and FAX number (914) 624-3239,
Escom Announces New Company
Escom, the German-based company that recently acquired the rights to
Commodore's assets, has announced that they will form anew company to
produce and market the Commodore product lines. The following company
name and address was provided by a new employee of the company:
Amiga Technologies, GmbH
Berliner Ring 89
D-64625, Bensheim
Germany
Commodore World Subscriber Sweepstakes
Winners of the Commodore World Subscriber Sweepstakes will be announced
in the next issue of Commodore World. For those who didn’t notice, the
contest was extended to run through June 1. Originally we had announced
ending the contest on May 1, but extended this date to cover some late-
running advertisements in other publications.
Watch for the Winner's Circle in the next issue of Commodore World to see
if you're one of the lucky winners. Winners will be drawn at random from
all qualifying subscribers, and information on claiming your prize will
appear with the winner information.
Lotto News From Lottoman
Lottoman has recently announced the availability of upgrades to its
programs. The Loftoman program has been upgraded to version 2.2, and
Lottoman II program has been revised to version 1.2. Lottoman states that
there is no charge for these upgrades to registered owners, but a shipping
charge of $3.00 is required to process the upgrade. The new versions,
according to the company, will load your lottery number data much faster,
and corrections have been made to some of the printing routines in the
Lottoman program.
A new addition has also been made to the Lottoman family. Called
Lottoman Jr., the new program provides the ability to track and analyze
daily pick 3 and pick 4 lottery games. Lottoman Jr. provides an easy-to-use
menu-driven system that allows you to view the history and trends of these
games, while providing you with valuable and strategic information either
in screen windows or printed hard-copy. Up to 6000 games and 100 tickets
can be stored in RAM for fast access, and the program comes supplied with
Issue 8
a36-page spiral-bound manual. The new program costs $19.95, plus $3.00
shipping, and was slated for release on May 1, 1995.
Finally, Lottoman has announced that phone support is now being
offered. The number is (814) 236-7615. Customers are encouraged to call
between the hours of 7:00-10:00 PM.
For more information, contact Lottoman at the number above, or write:
Lottoman, P.O, Box 44, New Millport, PA 16861.
Assembly ‘95 Demo Competition
Assembly '95 will be held in the Helsinki Fair Centre, Finland's largest
conference centrum, from August 10-13, 1995.
Several competitions are planned for various computer platforms
including the Amiga, MS-DOS PC's, and Commodore 64's. Prizes are to be
awarded for each competition, including both cash and merchandise.
Commodore 64 Competition General Rules:
- Only one contribution from each group/artist is accepted for each
competition series.
- Contributions must be 100% finished before the deadline, because we
will copy and spread all of them at the event. This is just to avoid final
versions being released months or possibly even years after the event.
- The deadlines aren't flexible, so please deliver your contributions in time
to avoid problems.
- Your contribution disks will not be returned.
C64 Demo Competition Rules:
- The demo will be run ona standard C64 with original 1541 drive and an
Action Replay MK6 cartridge.
- Each demo will be shown for a maximum of 15 minutes.
- It's recommendable that you code your demo in such a manner that
pressing space wouldn't be necessary to proceed. If, however, your demo
should require any user interaction, a person from the contributing
group should be present to run the demo.
- Atleast one person must be present from the contributing group. If the
entry is nota group-release, then the coder must be present him/herself.
C64 Graphics Competition Rules:
- The picture must be an executable file.
- ALL graphic formats are accepted.
- Only the picture must be seen on the screen; no scrollers or other moving
things are allowed. Background music is acceptable (although not
recommended), but during the competition no-one will hear it (audio
equipment will be turned off).
- Please try to give your picture some (sensible) name to avoid too many
“un-named” pictures competing.
- The artist must be present at the competition.
C64 Music Competition Rules:
- The tune must be an executable file.
- Only your imagination’s the limit; samples are of course accepted.
- Each tune will be played for maximum of 3 minutes. (This doesn’t mean
you have to cut the tune at 3 minutes sharp, though! Even if your tune
won't be played for more than 3 minutes at the competition, people will
play it longer at home).
- Please try to give your tune some (sensible) name to avoid too many
“un-named” tunes competing.
- The artist must be present at the competition.
Volume 2, Number 3
11
C64 Competition Prizes:
DEMO: Ist Place, $200.00; 2nd Place $100.00; 3rd Place $50.00.
GRAPHICS: Ist Place, $100.00; 2nd Place $50.00; 3rd Place $25.00.
MUSIC: Ist Place, $100.00; 2nd Place $50.00; 3rd Place $25.00.
All cash prizes will be paid in Finnish currency. Amounts may vary
depending on exchange rate at the time of competition, and may be
increased if attendance is better than expected.
Contacts:
The official C64 competition organizers are Deadbeat of The Sharks,
Mysdee of The Sharks, and Hazor of Beyond Force. Prizes for the C64
competitions will be gathered from the entrance fees, so it is essential for all
C64 attendees to contact these organizers. No mailing address has been
provided, but you can contact Mysdee at his Internet address:
mysti@stekt.oulu.fi.
Ticket information can be obtained by writing:
ASSEMBLY'95
Lakkisepantie 13
00620 Helsinki
FINLAND
Loadstar Compleats Another One...
Yes, Loadstar does it again. Loadstar has announce the publication of its
fourth major product in the “COMPLEAT” series—THE COMPLEAT
MAURICE! This is a compilation the 26 solitaire card games written by
Maurice Jones, the acknowledged master of card game simulations for the
C-64/128. There’s even a brand new, never before published game called
Boomerang.
The easy-to-use Loadstar-like menu system will take you through the
evolution of card gaming on computer, starting with Maurice's early card
game “models” and ending with the feature-filled programs that Loadstar
subscribers look forward to every month. Each game has complete
instructions and a personal message from the author himself, written
specifically for this edition.
THE COMPLEAT MAURICE comes on two 5.25 inch disks or one 3.5
inch disk for only $20.00 postpaid! That's less than $1.00 a game! All the
programs have been upgraded to work on any drive.
If you've got a C-64/128 friend, you can’t beat THE COMPLEAT
MAURICE as a gift that will be enjoyed over and over again.
C-64 Finds Planet Mercury?
Thanks go out to Fred Scott for sending us the AP news item he caught in
the Schenectedy NY Daily Gazette on May 10 of this year. The article, titled
“Flying telescope gives ecstatic scientist long-awaited view" detailed a
recent mission of NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory. Reporter Paul
Recer, reporting from the scene, detailed an account of how the aged C-141
jet captured pictures of the planet Mercury through its 1 meter telescope
while soaring more than 41,000 feet above Nevada. At this altitude, the
telescope can capture objects that can’t be easily seen from the ground.
Controlling the telescope and fine-tuning the received data was a
Commodore 64. “It works,” stated Fred Witteborn, a scientist directing
operation of the instruments connected to the telescope. We bet it does.
%)
COMMODORE WORLD
the Underground
| wandered into a local software
retailer the other day, and was
amazed (as I always am) at the
myriad of software titles available
for that other computer platform.
These software packages ran from
the top of the ceiling down to the
floor, aswellas wrapping themselves
around the customer with shelves
and shelves of products for every
taste. It made me wax nostalgic of
the glory days when Commodore
THE
CONNECTION
NeEws FROM COMMODORE-RELATED VENDORS AND PUBLISHERS
products shared a large part of stores
such as this one.
Is software really that hard to
come by these days? Some would
say yes, and argue that one reason to
upgrade is to get the new stuff that
will never be seen on a Commodore
monitor. I say no, however, and state
that there is a lot of good 8-bit
software out there. While the bulk
of this software may not be new,
much of it is undiscovered.
As most of us know, there are a
handful of programmers who
continue to do new and wonderful
things with their machines. Some
prefer to market their creations
commercially, and receive decent
exposure due to advertising and
reviews in magazines such as this
one (as well as the Underground, of
course).
Some stick to the shareware
concept, while others release their
programs into the pubic domain for
all to use. These are usually the
easiest products to get a hold of.
Shareware and PD items are readily
available online through services
such as GEnie and Delphi, as well as
local BBSs, and even an FTP site or
two.
One of the more underappreciated
sources for great software is
User Group CONNECTION
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL USER GROUP
Looking fora Commodore user group in your area? User groups can help
you solve problems, keep you informed of new products and events that
might be of interest, and give you a chance to share your computing
experiences with others who enjoy Commodore computing.
ILLINOIS
SouthEastern Illinois Commodore Club
818 East Main Street
FLORIDA
TCUG
c/o Ralph Ruscetta
5002 Halifax Drive
LOADSTAR and LOADSTAR 128
Quarterly, Softdisk pays authors
generously for their programs, and
has set a ridiculous standard for
quality. | was pleasantly surprised
when | first started receiving these
disk magazines last year. Every issue
is packed with utilities, games,
articles, and everything else you
expect fromahigh-class publication.
All this on one (3.5") or two (5.25")
ready-to-run disks,
A higher price seems to keep
people from subscribing, but with
new lower rates, you should
reconsider. The new rates put each
issue at about $5.82, which is a real
Attention User Groups!
Olney IL 62450-2620
NEW YORK
NORNYCHUG
c/o William Swift
6 Garden St.
Potsdam NY 13676
KANSAS
Commodore Users of Wichita
¢/o Marie Both
6606 Cottonwood
Wichita KS 67207
COMMODORE WORLD
Tampa FL 33615-4628
NEW HAMPHIRE
Concord - Manchester User Group
23 Monroe Street
Concord NH 03301-3617
AMATEUR RADIO
Commodore Users Group on Amateur Radio
BBS Address: kedocd @ n4hhp
12
Send us your group's name, contact
person’s name and phone number,
when and where you meet, number of
members, and an address where users
can write to you. Please send your
group info to:
CW UG Connection
c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
P.O. Box 646
East Longmeadow, MA 01028-0646
Issue 8
deal when you see what you are
getting. LOADSTAR is the only
monthly Commodore publication
remaining today, and it deserves
more attention.
Some major distributors still carry
a lot of Commodore titles. Most
people reading this are aware of
CMD's stash, as they print a listing
in every issue. Another great source
is Software Support International,
which offers good prices and a large
catalog, free upon request.
Used software is a treasure trove
that many haven't discovered. [have
found that used software vendors
often carry titles that have been out
of circulation, and cannot be found
elsewhere. The only difference with
used software is the weathered
manuals, and the absence of a box,
but the program is as good as new.
My favorite used software vendor
is Bare Bones Software. They offer
an extensive list of used titles upon
request. You can call them at
1-800-638-1123 to get one.
Finally, searching the proverbial
garage sales, classified ads, and even
family members (take it easy!) may
turn up a software treasure. A
recently acquired some used stuff
from my brother-in-law, and found
some classic games (Choplifter, Mr.
Do’sCastle, and Beyond Zork) which
I'm now hooked on.
Software developers made a ton
of software for the Commodore line.
While the new stuffis more obvious
to us now because it’s easier to keep
track of, there is much we haven't
seen. If we have a need, we should
seek out these hidden treasures
before we succumb to the myth that
we have seen all this platform has to
offer. | doubt anyone has.
- Scott Eggleston
Editor, the Underground
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No kidding. Call 1-800-831-2694
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Commodore’ software subscription. That
way, you can explore our revolutionary
“subscribe-to-a-disk-of-software” concept
for yourself!
Each monthly issue contains 7-10
programs and features on two 5.25” disks
or one 3.5" disk. Imagine getting features
like these on every issue:
* Utilities *Puzzles
eApplications *Tutorials
eMusic Reviews
CJHOOI-2/94
Volume 2, Number 3
Name:
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City:
*Games
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ki
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FREE SOFTWARE CERTIFICATE
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If you like your FREE issue, you can complete a 3-month trial sub-
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FREE, you'll save 1/3 off the regular 3-month subscription price of $29.95. |
When you subscribe, you'll receive a FREE Special Bonus Disk of some
| of our most popular programs. You'll also have the option to subscribe for |
a longer term and save more. Whether or not you subscribe, your first
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only. International-call for information. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
COMMODORE WORLD
Top Tips
WHY WE ‘DO" THE WAY WE DO...
Egads! Our DO/WHILE/LOOP example program
from last month certainly brought in some
interesting responses from our readers. Before
we get into those responses, here's that test
program again:
16@ REM DO LOOP SPEED TEST
11@ I=1
120 TIS="900000"
13@ DOWHILEI<10@00@: I=I+1:LOOP
149 T=TI
15@ PRINTT
16@ TI "®
179 FORI NEXT
186 T=TI
19% PRINTT
First cam this response from Bob Renaud:
Gentlebeings:
The issue #7 TOP TIPS item, “To DO or Not to
DO”, made unfair comparisons between DO/
WHILE/LOOP and FOR/NEXT.
Point 1: line 130 puts numeric values 1 and
10000 within the loop. These are ASCII values,
and need to be converted. As it is written, on my
C128 in FAST mode, the line required 3184 jiffies
to execute.
Let’s make a couple of changes:
10000
I<K: I=I+J:LOOP
Getting the ASCII values out of the loop by using
‘J’ and ‘X’ reduced execution time to 1949 jiffies,
1.63 times faster.
Point 2: The FOR/NEXT loop in line 170
contains no addition operation, so obviously it
willscream along. Itrequires 442 jiffies to execute
(difference of 4.56 to 1 vs. the faster DO loop, not
the 7.2 to 1 of the original line 130).
Let’s make the comparison totally fair by
rewriting line 170:
170 CLR: I=1:J=1:K=1:FORI=1TO
10000:J=J+x: T
Now line 170 required 1440 jiffies to execute
(note: FOR~NEXT reads 10000 only once). Ergo,
COMMODORE WORLD
the FOR/NEXT loop that’s fairly compared to the
efficient DO loop is only 1.38 times faster.
Conclusion: for loops such as
FORI=1T010000:NEXT which serve no purpose
other than as a time delay, the FOR/NEXT
structure is faster. But, when math or logic is
placed inside the loop, the difference in speed
between FOR/NEXT and DO/WHILE/LOOP is
insignificant. And, the flexibility of the DO
structures far exceeds that of FOR/NEXT, e.g.,
DO WHILE A=B(X) AND C<N*4...
Please do caution your authors to compare
apples to apples in writing such dissertations.
Danke,
Then came the following from Bob Buragas:
Your latest issue (V2/N2) has a real DO/DO ofa
tip. It finally confirms that BASIC 2.0 can do
nothing 7 times faster than BASIC 7.0.
The DO loopisinfinite and needsa conditional
statement to exit. FOR/NEXT builds in a
conditional with the statement TO.
A fair test would make the FOR statement
infinite and then use an IF/THEN to exit. A test
which includes a PRINT Lin each loop drops the
speed differential from 700% to 3%.
But, so what? DO is an infinite loop. FOR/
NEXT can't be. DO WHILE waits for collateral
events which can be difficult to program with
FOR/IF/NEXT.
Since FOR/NEXT is also a part of BASIC 7.0,
DO obviously wasn'tintended to replacea simple
14
FOR/NEXT loop. Besides, jumping out of FOR/
NEXT, without closing the loop, can cause
problems.
New commands are added to languages to do
complex functions that are difficult, or
time-consuming, using the olderand less powerful
ones.
Anyways, comparing applesand Commodores
only proves you have two of something.
As long as I'm being picky, why lines 140 and
180 in DO? Converting TI to T and then printing
T is redundant when you can print TI. Talking
about ways to enhance speed!
like the magazine. These tips gave me a much
needed laugh.
Okay... let me clear up a couple of things. Both of
these readers want me to make the test ‘fair’ by
adding additional elements to the FOR/NEXT
loop. That misses the point. Ifyou want to see ifa
Porche is faster than a Volkswagen, you don’t
change the engine in a Porche to something
smaller because it wouldn't be ‘fair’ to compare
the two otherwise.
But there were indeed some valid points made
on how DO could be optimized by the use of
variables in place of straight numbers. The end
result was the same, though... for a straight
delay—which is clearly what we were testing—
there's no sense replacing FOR/NEXT with any
form of DO.
One more point. Since the program was test of
how long each of these loops take, assigning TI to
T was done because it takes less time than a print
statement; thus adding less ‘extra’ time for
instructions used to perform the test.
©)
We Need Your Top Tips!
Each issue we'll print the very best tips we
receive from our readers. Send your tips on
using and programming your Commodore
64 or 128 to:
CW Top Tips
c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
P.O. Box 646
East Longmeadow, MA 01028-0646
Issue 8
CA ar) ea KASARA MICRO SYSTEMS
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and it's yours for the incredibly low price of
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5.25-inch disks order #070425
3.5-inch disks order #070423
*obscure ten-dollar spelling of "complete."
Volume 2, Number 3 15 COMMODORE WORLD
Just For Starters
by, Steue Vander Ark
QO
MORE COMMODORE BASICS FOR THE BEGINNER
After reading my last “Just For Starters” column,
a friend of mine asked me a good question. I had
mentioned that in order to find out the correct
commands needed to format a disk, I had logged
onto GEnie and asked around. My friend
wondered how, ifIdidn’thavemy manualaround,
I manage to format disks and do all those other
disk-related chores. Did | use that “wedge”
program I talked about or maybe JiffyDOS?
The truth of the matter is that don’t use either
JiffyDOS or the DOS wedge program that comes
with the Commodore drives, | use program called
GEOS which makes all those kinds of tasks
ridiculously easy. GEOS is far more than just a
DOS enhancer or a quick way to format a disk,
though, and that’s why it gets its own column in
thismagazine, which also write. GEOS isa system
which lets you do all your computing by moving
alittle arrow around on the screen to “point-and-
click” your choices and commands. To format a
disk using GEOS, you just point to the command
“format” and click on it; GEOS takes it from
there. All your disk activities, from moving files
to erasing disks, are that simple with GEOS. If
youthink that thiskind ofa working environment
would be your cup of tea, I suggest that you pick
up some back issues of this magazine. In
particular, check out issue number five, which
contains a series of articles giving a beginner’s-
eye view of GEOS.
Experts On Call
You'll notice also that I said in the last issue that
when | had a question about the Commodore
computers and disk drives, I turned tosomething
called GEnie. In case you've never heard of GEnie,
at least not outside ofa Sixties sitcom or a Disney
COMMODORE WORLD
movie, let me take a moment to fill you in. Believe
me, if you're a beginner with questions, GEnie is
very much worth finding out about. It’s a
“telecommunications service,” which means
that you can call it up using your telephone. You
don’t call up a telecommunications service
yourself, though; your computer has to doit. And
in order for that to happen, you need a gizmo
called a modem. A modem plugs into the back of
your computer, often into the “user port,” which
isthe wideconnector to the rightifyouare looking
at the back of your machine, A phone line gets
plugged into the modem, and from then on your
computer can make phone calls. Sounds simple,
right? It is.
Wait a second, though, you do need one thing
more: a “terminal” program. That's a particular
type of program which knows how to use your
modem to make calls. The phone numbers you'll
want yourterminal program to call are ones which
will be answered by another computer, in which
case the two can start chatting back and forth.
That kind of electronic talk is called
16
telecommunications, and a company you call up
that way is called a telecommunications service.
There are anumber of such services available for
a monthly fee, and GEnie is one of them. It's not
the biggest one (CompuServe takes the prize
there), nor is it the only one accessible to
Commodore programs; but for Commodore
users, it’s the best one, in my humble opinion.
That's because the Commodore support area on
GEnie has a particularly impressive number of
big-name power users as regular members.
Creative Micro Designs, probably the number
onesource of Commodore hardware and software
in the world, maintains an active presence there.
There are folks available to chat with live every
single night, people who know the answers to
questions like what to type in to format a disk.
As you explore your Commodore computer
and try out things, you will undoubtedly have
plenty of questions and run into problems you
can't solve. Having an account on GEnie is like
having a couple of friendly experts hanging
around every night to answer those questions
and help you solve those problems. You might
even run into me there.
Just a side note before | get talking about
variables and text colors: my screen name on
GEnie has changed andalong with it my preferred
Internet address. E-mail me at STEVE.VA on
GEnie or STEVE.VA@GENIE.GEIS.COM via the
Internet. My America OnLine (another service |
use) address is still SteveVArk.
Make Your Choice
Last issue in this column, we talked about the
commands PEEK and POKE. We used PEEK to
find out what number was stored in a particular
Issue 8
memory locations and we used POKE to put a
newnumber there. The memory location we chose
for this was 646, which is the spot where the
Commodore stores the color number of the text
on the screen. We found out that when we POKE
anew number into location 646, we changed the
text color. We also talked a little bit about
variables. | promised that this issue we would
write a program using some of these ideas, and
that the power of using variables in
programming would become more obvious.
So, let's give it a try. Remember that we are
working in 64 mode, which means that if you are
using a 64 you're all set. If you're using a 128,
switch to 64 mode by typing GO64 and answering
Y for yes when it asks if you mean it.
The first step in writing a program is to plan.
We need to decide just what exactly we want to
have happen before we can figure out how best to
write the BASIC commands. In this case, we're
going to write a program that changes the color of
the text on the screen to whichever color the user
wishes. In order to do this, we'll have to provide
some way for the user to give a number to the
program, which will then be POKEd into memory
location 646, After this is finished, the program
can quit. If the user wants to change the color
again, they can run the program again.
Wait a second, though. What if we let the user
have another chance to enter a number
immediately, so they don’t have to re-run the
program. That would make our program more
“user friendly,” and any program should be as
user-friendly as possible.
So here’s what we will expect to see:
(1) the user is asked to entera number between 0
and 15, since those are the color numbers on
a Commodore 64
(2) the program takes that number and POKEs it
into memory location 646
(3) when that happens, the text color on the
screen will change automatically
(4) the program jumps back to step 1 andasks for
another number
In order to do this, we'll need to use some new
commands. This whole business of asking the
user for input (in this case a number) and then
doing something with that information, is very
important. After all, for a program to be of any
use at all, it has to be able to communicate with
the user. We'll do this using the BASIC command
INPUT, which is used to (yes, you guessed it) get
input from the user, We'll make our first line the
input line, the one which asks the user for a
number. The INPUT command in BASICincludes
a helpful ability to ask questions for us as well as
Volume 2, Number 3
get the answer. Take a look at the following
program line and you'll see where | typed the
question right there along with the command.
INPUT” PLEASE
NUMBER” ; X
ENTER A
The question is written inside quotation marks,
as you can see, and it is followed by a semicolon
and a letter X. That X is our variable, just like |
talked about last issue. We'll use it to stand for
whichever number the user chooses. Ifyou think
about it for a moment, you'll see that we'd need
something like this because that value could be
different each time we use the program. By calling
that number X we can refer toit wherever weneed
toinourcommandsandit willalways be the right
number. BASIC automatically assigns the number
entered to the variable X because we tacked the X
onto the command after that semi-colon.
Go ahead and run this program now (type
RUNand press RETURN). You'll see our question
appear on the screen with a nice question markin
place at the end (which the computer supplied,
you'll notice). Then the computer just sits there,
waiting for an answer. Pretty slick, eh? Try typing
in a number and pressing RETURN. Nothing
really happens, of course, since we haven't written
any more commands, but we're on our way.
According to our plan, once the number has
been entered, the program should POKE it into
memory location 646. We can copy that line right
from the last issue, pretty much, This time,
though, we'll POKE the variable X. Our second
line looks like this, then:
20 POKE 646,X
See how the variable helps? No matter which
number is entered, this line will work. Now try
running the program so far and you'll see that
you can very easily change the color of the text.
When you've done so, the program stops. Run it
again and you can change colors again. You can
do this overand over again, trying out any number
you wish. Of course, if you enter the number 6,
the text seems to disappear since it is the same
color as the background. You'll have to run the
program again blind to change the color back to
something you can see.
Okay, so far so good. Now, according to our
plan, we want the program to go back to the
beginning and ask for another number. That
would make it so you don’t have to re-run the
program each time. We'll do this with another
very useful BASIC command: GOTO. GOTO tells
the program to “go to” another program line. In
this case, we want to jump back to line number
17
10, where we asked the user for a number, Here's
how that will work:
30 GOTO 10
When the program gets to line 30, then, it will
jump back to line 10 and do whatever that line
tells it to do, which is to ask for a number.
Checking back with our initial plan, it would
seem like we're done. The program works just
fine. We do have one small problem, however.
How do we stop? There’s no way to tell the
program that we're through and would like to
quit. For now you can use the keyboard method
of stopping a program, which is to press the
RESTORE key on the right side of the keyboard at
the same time as the key that has RUN and STOP
on it. This doesn’t erase your program, it just
breaks out of it and returns you to a clear screen
and a prompt. You can now type RUN and press
RETURN to keep experimenting, But next issue
we'll work on ways of quitting a program with
just a little more style.
You might want to takea look at your finished
program. You can do this by typing LIST and
pressing RETURN, You'll see all three lines listed
there. You might also want to add lines to the
ones we have. You can do this quite simply by
typing a line number and the new commands on
any blank line on the screen and then pressing
RETURN. The line you just typed is added to the
program. For example, let's add a line that tells
the user the name of the program. We want this
tohappen once only, before the program actually
gets rolling. Since our program starts with line
number 10, we'll have to add our line before that.
We'll make it line number 5. (The reason we use
line numbers like 10, 20, and so on, is that it give
us room to add lines when we need to.)
We'lluse the PRINT command for this, since it
lets us put text on the screen. Here's the line:
5 PRINT “TEXT COLOR CHANGER”
Now when we RUN the program, we'll see TEXT
COLOR CHANGER on thescreen before ourinput
question appears,
Next issue we'll look a little closer at our
program and adda few refinements. Meanwhile,
try adding a few lines that will let the user change
some other colors on our screen. Here are a few
memory locations you might find useful: the
background color is stored in location 53281, the
color of the border around the screen is stored in
location 53280, Don't be afraid to try things. If
worse comes to worst, just RUN/STOP-RESTORE
your way out and try again.
%)
COMMODORE WORLD
Foreign Exchange
Europe has always been the scene of great wars.
In the midst of European-wide “celebrations”
marking the 50th anniversary of VE day,
Europeans continue to wage war with each other
in the Balkans. Every world history book contains
enough proof to back up the claim that the
nations of Europe simply can’t live together in
peace and harmony any longer than a century.
Greed, distrust and in some cases down right
hate have thrown this continent time and time
again into brutal conflict. Years ago, Sports
Illustrated warned Americans coming to Europe
to visit the Olympics to be careful of making
certain “hand gestures” on the German
autobahn. It could cost you your life! Dissension
and war seem to be part of the European
mentality and therefore its destiny.
The European computer scene is also not
without its confrontations. Two years ago a
blow-up within the ranks of the major
Commodore computer club in Austria led to a
irreconcilable split. Tempers flared and
obscenities were exchanged as the combatants
almost came to blows. Computer buddies became
enemies overnight and grown men turned
childishly sinister. A once strong and unified
Commodore User Group almost lost its
effectiveness as more time was put into name
calling and threats than into serving and helping
each other.
Greed has taken its toll on one of the largest
Commodore clubs in Europe. What started out
asauser club was changed intoa company due to
the size of the group and current laws. The
leadership of the club quickly learned that a club
of this size could bring in a rather handsome
COMMODORE WORLD
by Joseph Gaudl
COMPUTER WARS
cash flow and the emphasis gradually turned
from membership support to profit. Objections
from the club's ranks were viewed as destructive
and immediately followed with threats of
expulsion. The club's bosses ventured into one
business transaction which almost ended in a
fiasco. A program was burned onto a chip and
then sold to club members WITHOUT the
permission of those holding the copyrights to
the program. Thousands of dollars in court fees
had to be paid by the club until an out of court
settlement was finally reached. Many club
members questioned the sanity of their leaders
and balked at their refusal to reveal the amount
of the court fees. Some regional groups finally
pulled away from the main group and started
their own user service groups. This raised the ire
of the bosses to the extent that they now are
attempting to take legal action against the
seceders.
Wars are being fought on line as well. The
German equivalent to GEnie, Q-Link or possibly
CompuServe is called BTX (Bildschirmtext). This
is the place to be ifyou want to get something off
your chest or thrown at you! BTX is an excellent
on line service for Commodore users needing
help, but the forums and mail boxes can get
rough. As long as you spice your words with
18
enough of those emoticons, you can get away
with practically anything! Ifit should get a little
to personal, you'll probably hear from someone's
attorney. European courts are literally filled with
defamation cases, some no doubt as a result of
on-line insults.
And then there's the German company that
violated international copyright laws. When
confronted with their violation, the German
company simply went on the offensive, drew a
line in the sand and dared the violated company
tocrossitand try to stop them. The guilty party's
insolence came to light when, in speaking with a
representative of the other company, they
expressed their lack of fear of the violated
company and readiness to fight the battle in
international courts.
It would be wrong toassume that the European
computer scene is dominated by war mongrels.
Most of the folks know personally are not of this
stripe. I've spoken to them about this problem
and they share my concern and agree that the
situation must change. | am involved with
computer clubs that are very much international
and also very harmonious, The computer—
especially the C-64—has helped bridge gaps
between languages, creeds and religions as
immediate friendships have been made over
keyboards and sitting in front of monitors. It has
been my privilege and pleasure to introduce
“seekers” into a fellowship of concerned
computer freaks who have welcomed the
newcomer with open arms and strengthened
themselves thereby. There just needs to be more
of it here.
©)
Issue 8
CW & RUN BACK ISSUES
For years, RUN Magazine provided Commodore Users
with a great source of information, and now CMD has
given you Commodore World. Don't let this valuable
information slip away—fill in the voids in your library now!
RUN Magazine Back Issues
Any 3 issues for $12.00, any 6 for $18.00,
or any 12 for only $24.00
October 1989
Special Issue 1989
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Shipping: 3 or 6 issues - U.S. $3.00, Canada $5.00, Foreign $15.00; 12 issues
U.S. $5.00; Canada $7.00; Foreign $20.00.
Commodore World Back Issues
$4.95 each, or any 3 for only $12.00
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TO ORDER CALL 1-800-638-3263
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July 1989
Creative Pixels Ltd. Presents
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THE WINGS OF CIRCE Is o new axctlon/adventure game for
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skeletons as you attempt to rescue Odysseus from bis
powedgol captor! earn the seuets of Pegasus and Medusa!
ATION AND ADVENTORE!
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Send check or money
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Volume 2, Number 3
USED SOFTWARE
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COMMODORE 64/128 IN 64 MODE
A new Public Network
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(CyXCopyright 1994
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Productions
COMMODORE WORLD
COMMODORE WORLD'S GUIDE TO
dy Gene Barher
In the last five years, RAM devices have played a major role in the development of
our Commodore 8-bit systems. They have given us exciting new abilities.
Programs such as GEOS, BASIC 8, CS-DOS, Maverick, Pocket Writer
and many others provide irrefutable evidence of this. And
there are even further abilities yet to be fully explored.
COMMODORE WORLD
New releases such as Mad Man’s CKit 94, Craig
Bruce’s ACE operating system, and others are
still coming at us, pushing our capabilities a little
further. There is no doubt that the future of
Commodore 8-bit computinginvolves the further
utilization of these powerful RAM devices.
The question is, “Do you need a RAM device?”
In this feature we provide you with the facts you
need to answer this question for yourself. GEOS
users will find Maurice Randall's articleon RAM
devices from the GEOS perspective (elsewhere in
this issue) especially helpful.
RAM Device Types
For convenience sake, I've broken down the
available RAM devices discussed in this article
into three types:
¢ Ram Expansion Units (REU's): CLD's Super
1750 Clone and Commodore's 17xx series.
¢ Memory Expansion Units (MEU’s): PPI's
BBGRAM and Berkeley Softworks GEORAM.
* Virtual Storage Devices (VSD's) — CMD’s
RAMLink and PPI’s RAMDrive.
REU and MEU cartridges add RAM to your
Commodore indirectly, requiring the use of
specialized software. REU’s and MEU’s differ
somewhat in the ways in which software must
access the expansion RAM. Consequently,
software written for an REU will not work with
the MEU and vice versa. REU’s feature faster
RAM access and greater non-GEOS software
support. While today’s MEU’s feature greater
RAM capacity and battery backup. Both REU’s
and MEU’s feature strong GEOS support.
VSD cartridges add RAM to your Commodore
both directly and indirectly. Like REU'’s and
MEU's, VSD cartridges allow the use of expanded
RAM through specialized software. However, the
strength of VSD’s lie in their direct use as
Commodore compatible disk drives. The benefit
here is software need not be specially written in
order to take advantage of the cartridges. A VSD
cartridge should be viewed as a FAST disk drive
with REU capabilities. Additionally, VSD's feature
excellent GEOS support.
Below we examine each of these different RAM
devices in more detail. To conserve space, only
RAM devices which remain commercially
available have been included.
Volume 2, Number 3
RAM Device Terms
RAM — Random Access Memory: This is
memory that the computer uses for storing
and retrieving information. However, the
information in this memory is lost when the
chips are deprived of power.
ROM—Read Only Memory: Asits acronym
suggests, this is memory that the computer
uses for retrieving information only. The
information in this memory is not effected
by aloss of power and can not be changed.
For example, Commodore BASIC is
implemented in ROM chips.
SIMM — Single Inline Memory Module: A
small card containing a great deal of RAM.
The capacities available for Commodore
use include the 1Meg and 4Meg versions.
DMA — Direct Memory Access: This is the
method which the REU uses to transfer
memory back and forth between the
computer and itself.
MEU — Memory Expansion Unit: This is a
cartridge that plugs into the expansion port
of the computer, providing the computer
with additional memory; most notably the
BBGRAM and GEORAM products.
REU — Ram Expansion Unit: This is a
cartridge that plugs into the expansion port
of the computer, providing the computer
with additional memory and featuring DMA;
most notably the Super 1750 Clone and
Commodore's 17xx series.
VSD — Virtual Storage Device: This is a
cartridge that plugs into the expansion port
of the computer and uses its RAM as an
extremely fast disk drive; notably the
RAMLink and RAMDrive units.
Note: The terms cartridge port and
expansion port are used interchangeably
throughout this article. They are the one in
the same.
21
CLD’s Super 1750 Clone (REU)
Available from SSI, the Super 1750 Clone is a
compact cartridge, roughly a quarter of the size
and weight of the Commodore 1750, Due to its
low power consumption, the Clone does not
require the use of a heavy duty power supply
when used with a Commodore 64 as does its big
brother. The design of the Clone provides for a
secure connection to your computer's cartridge
port or cartridge port expander (a cartridge port
expander allows more than one cartridge to
connect to the computer at one time).
As its name suggests, the Clone operates in a
manner identical to the Commodore 1750; it
contains the same amount of memory (512K),
andis 100% compatible with all software designed
for the 1750. The Clone includes a utility disk
which includes demonstration, RAMDOS, and
diagnostic programs. The demonstration
programs highlight the Clone’s speed by rapidly
copying images from expansion to video memory
(resulting in smooth animation that would be
impossible otherwise). The RAMDOS programs
allowyoutouse the Cloneasa disk drive, However,
RAMDOS must be installed before it can be used
ANDitrequiresa small portion ofthe computer's
memory to operate. The diagnostic programs
perform extensive tests on the Clone to insure
that it’s operating correctly.
It is important to note that the Clone will only
be of use to you if you have software that can take
advantage of it, With the right software you may
find the Clone to be invaluable. Examples: REU
aware word processors can edit thousands of
lines instead of hundreds, copiers can copy 1541
disks in one pass instead of three or more, and
COMMODORE WORLD
terminal (communications) programs can have
512K buffers instead of 32K ones.
PPI’s BBGRAM (MEU)
Available from LynnCarthy Industries (dieHard)
or direct from PPI, the BBGRAM units come in
capacities of 512K, 1Meg, and 2Meg. The
BBGRAMisalong cartridge (aboutan inch longer
thanastandard one) that plugs into the expansion
port of your computer. The unit is about half the
size and weight of its big brother the Berkeley
Softworks’ GEORAM. The BBGRAM features two
LED's: a red battery low indicator and a green
activity indicator. There is also a disable switch
for use with non-GEOS applications. The unit
includes a four D-Cell battery holder for battery
backup anda small nine volt power supply. Both
of these plug nicely into the side ofthe BBGRAM.
The BBGRAM operates in a manner identical
to Berkeley Softworks’ GEORAM and is 100%
compatible with all software designed for the
GEORAM. Where BBGRAM differs from
GEORAM is its ability to retain data when the
computer is shut down via the power supply and
battery backup. The unit is shipped with a utility
disk which includes a BBGRAM tester, a few
diagnostic programs, and a number of GEOS
support utilities,
Atthis time, the BBGRAM unitis primarily for
use with GEOS (please see Maurice Randall's
article for more information).
CMD’s RAMLink (VSD)
Available from CMD, the RAMLink is a large
cartridge that plugs into the expansion port of
COMMODORE WORLD
your computer. On top of the
RAMLink there are two separate
cartridge ports. The first is a
PASS-THRU port which allows the
use of other cartridges with the
RAMLink. The second is a RAM
port which provides a protected
DOS interface for most popular
REU and MEU devices (including
all of those mentioned in this
feature). Optionally, the RAMLink
can be equipped with a RAMCard
which allows the installation ofup
to 16 Megabytes of RAM for the
DOS interface. Additionally, a
Real Time Clock can be added to the RAMCard
which will time and date stamp files stored on the
RAMLink. The RAMLink has three buttons: two
swap buttons which allow the RAMLink toswitch
to device number eight or nine, and a system
reset button. The RAMLinkalso has twoswitches:
the direct switch which allows software to use the
REU or MEU in the RAM port directly, and a
RAMLink disable switch. In the back of the
RAMLinkunit restsa parallel port, offering CMD
HD Series hard drive owners faster access. The
RAMLink comes standard with a small power
supply and has a battery backup option. Both of
these plug nicely into the back of the cartridge.
And finally, the RAMLink features a number of
LED’s to reflect its current state.
RAM Device Features
1750 Clone
Minimum RAM 512K
Maximum RAM 512K
Power Supply
Battery Backup
DMA Support
Pass-Thru Port
Parallel Port
BBGRAM
—o Ez
RAMLink | RAMDrive
512K OK 512K
2Meg 2Meg
YES YES
(a)
YES YES YES
(c)
YES
ES
(c)
[revtnoonas [no | vo [ves | no
LEGEND
(a)Use of the power supply is optional (unit will lose data when computer is shut
down)
(b)Can be attained with the purchase of a BBU (Battery Backup Unit) from PPI
(c)Only when used in conjunction with a REU and only for REU memory access
(d)Can use a REU when used with a cartridge port expander
(e)Must be installed via software and requires computer memory
22
Issue 8
It would be misleading to label the RAMLink
as just a RAM device. The RAMLink is a DOS
interface for REU’s, MEU’s, SIMM’s (memory
modules), CMD hard drives, and JiffyDOS
equipped disk drives. This DOS interface is
completely transparent to your computer. The
memory found in the RAMLink (REU/MEU/
SIMM memory) appears to your computer as a
CMD hard drive with all of its features and
benefits. Since the drive storage is in RAM, disk
access is almost instantaneous. The RAMLink
utilities disk includes all of the programs you
need to take advantage of the unit including file
and disk copiers, custom setup and diagnostic
utilities, and a number of GEOS utilities.
In a nut-shell, the RAMLink is the equivalent
ofaddingaREU/MEUinterface, parallel interface,
JiffyDOS, and a fast hard drive to your system.
Additionally, most software will operate on the
RAMLink, seeing RAMLink as a disk drive.
PPI’s RAMDrive (VSD)
Available from PPI, RAMDrive cartridges come
in fixed capacities of 512K, 1Meg, and 2Meg. The
RAMDrive is a long cartridge (about twice the
length of a standard one) that plugs into the
expansion port of your computer. The unit has
two buttons: a swap button which allows the
RAMDrive to switch to device number eight or
nine, anda system reset button. The RAMDrive
also features a disable switch. The unit comes
standard with a small power supply which plugs
nicely into the back ofthe cartridge. For portability
and blackout protection, the RAMDrive features
internal rechargeable nicad batteries. The unit
features CMD’s transparent DOS interface, and
with the use ofa cartridge port expander can take
advantage of REU’s. Like the RAMLink, the
RAMDrive features a number of LED's to reflect
its current state.
The RAMDrive is a the functional equivalent
of a battery-backed RAMLink without the
cartridge ports, parallel interface, and 16Meg
RAM capacity. Unlike RAMLink, RAMDrive's
Volume 2, Number 3
DOS is loaded into a portion of the RAM itself,
allowing for simple DOS upgrading (RAMLink
comes with its DOS in ROM).
The main advantage of a RAMDrive lies in its
portability; due to its compact design, it’s fairly
easy to move from computer to computer. The
RAMDrive includes a disk containing the same
set of utilities as does the RAMLink (with small
changes to account for the differences in the two).
Please see the RAMLink section for more
information.
The RAMDrive is the equivalent of adding
JiffyDOS and a fast hard drive to your system.
Like the RAMLink, most software will operate on
the RAMDrive in some form or another.
Recommendations
If you only use your Commodore occasionally,
for playing games, or learning BASIC
programming, hold off on purchasing a RAM
unit until your needs grow.
Ifyouuse your Commodore primarily for word
processing, telecommunications, or copying
disks, you should seriously consider the addition
of a Super 1750 Clone. The speed and buffer
advantages of using a Clone can be breathtaking.
If you primarily use GEOS you have a number
of options. First, you should purchase some sort
of RAM device; GEOS is simply more efficient
and less difficult to use when a RAM device is
added. The Clone is fast and has some limited
capabilities outside of GEOS. The BBGRAM offers
battery backup anda higher RAM capacity. While
the RAMLink and RAMDrive
offer battery backup, high RAM
capacity, and room to grow in the
future. All of these devices offer
excellent GEOS support. The best
advice is to use the RAM Device
Feature Chart and choose the
device which best fits your
particularsystem. It'satough call.
If you are a software developer,
the RAMLink is the best testing
tool you can buy period. After the
purchase of a hard drive get a
RAMLink. When properly usedit
can easily cut your development time in half—or
more. Additionally, software support for CMD
devices has become the standard as of late. And
while RAMLinkis probably the best RAM devices
for a developer, I'd suggest going a bit further...
get a 1750 Super Clone as well, and plug this into
the RAMLink. The RAM in the Super Clone will
be accessed by RAMLink even faster than
RAMLink's own internal RAM (due to the DMA
capabilities of the Clone). You'll also be able to
use and develop software specifically for REU's.
23
RAM Device Sources
Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
(RAMLink)
P.O. Box 646
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
(800) 638-3263 Orders
(413) 525-0023 Info
LynnCarthy Industries, Inc.
(PPI BBGRAM)
816 West Bannock St.
Suite 502
Boise, ID 83702-5850
(208) 383-0300 Orders
(208) 383-0300 Info
Performance Peripherals, Inc.
(RAMDrive, BBGRAM, BBU)
5 Upper Loudon Rd.
Loudonville, NY 12211
(518) 436-0485 Orders
(518) 436-0485 Info
Software Support International
(CLD Super 1750 Clone)
2700 N.E. Andresen Rd.
Suite A-10
Vancover, WA 98661
(800) 356-1179 Orders
(206) 695-1393 Info
If you use your Commodore extensively for a
variety of uses, you should consider the purchase
of a RAMLink or RAMDrive. Either device will
have an immediate impact on your system. A
RAMLink or RAMDrive will make your
Commodore drives seem like they're standing
still—the speed literally has to be seen to be
believed.
If you decide to purchase a BBGRAM or
RAMDrive, be sure to get the 2Meg versions.
These devices are not user expandable. The price
difference between the 512K and 2Meg versions
is less than a $100. You will not be disappointed.
Ifyou decide to purchase a RAMLink be sure to
include the RAMCard option with at least 1Meg
of memory. This way, you can add SIMM chips
for more memory as your needs grow.
Before considering the purchase of any of these
RAM devices, though, be sure to investigate the
software issue, Will this device work with my
favorite word processor? Does my copy program
recognize this device? What additional programs
will need to use this device? Use the RAM Device
Feature Chart to help you identify the best device
for your system. %)
COMMODORE WORLD
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
GEOS
&
RAM Expansion
ly, Maurice Randall
If you've never used any form of RAM expansion device with GEOS, I would guess that
you might not be a serious user of GEOS. Using GEOS is just like using a bigger and
more powerful computer, and everyone knows that theym@edall the RAM they can get!
COMMODORE WORLD 24 Issue 8
Way Back When...
GEOS started out as a system that would use just
one or two disk drives. And those drives had to be
1541's. This made things easy. GEOS has an area
in memory set aside for software to reside that
provides routines for speeding up the disk access.
These routines are commonly knownas the GEOS
Disk Turbo routines. Combined together, they
are also referred to as a disk driver. Without the
Disk Turbo routines, the 1541 would be way too
slow since GEOS requires a great deal of disk
activity. With both available disk drives being
thesame type(1541's), the same disk driver could
be used to control both drives.
As GEOS developed, the 1571 and 1581 drives
cameinto play. Different disk drivers were needed
to control these drives. The problem was that
there was only enough room in memory to hold
one disk driver; GEOS needs the rest of available
memory for the remainder of the operating
system, system variables, the printer driver, the
input driver, plus room for applications to use.
As GEOS evolved, the CONFIGURE program
was developed to fetch the needed disk driver
into memory whenever the user wanted access to
a different drive. Unfortunately, only the
Desktop itself was written to work with
CONFIGURE; applications such as
geoWrite could not access the second
drive if it was of a different type
requiring a different driver. So only
one drive was of any use while using
GEOS application programs. Thisis still
the case, by the way, for GEOS users lacking
RAM expansion.
Enter RAM Expansion
GEOS really began to take off when the
Commodore 17xx series of RAM expansion
devices were incorporated into the system. This
made a huge difference—in more ways than one.
When GEOS boots up on a RAM expanded
system, CONFIGURE checks to see which disk
drives are being used, and promptly loads the
disk drivers required for these drives into the
RAMexpander. Thus, when an application wants
to access a different drive, the operating system
itself brings the appropriate disk driver into
memory from the RAM expander. Under these
conditions, CONFIGURE is now only needed
during the initial bootup.
With the additional RAM, GEOS can also have
what is referred to as a “ramdisk”, This is what
really makes GEOS shine, Nearly instantaneous
loading and saving can be performed with a
ramdisk! The beauty in this is that the GEOS
developers had enough sense to simulate the track
and sector layout ofa standard Commodore disk
Volume 2, Number 3
drive within the ramdisk. Since a 1750 RAM
expansion contains 512K of RAM, and a 1571
disk has about 341K of total space (including the
directory tracks), a simulated 1571 drive became
the most popular use for a ramdisk.
The ramdisk also requires a disk driver to
control its use. A copy of this driver also resides
within the RAM expander until GEOS needs to
use it, at which time it is transferred into the
computer's memory. If this sounds like GEOS
itself must set aside a certain portion of the
available RAM for its own use, it’s because it
does. Many people are confused over this aspect.
It would seem like there is some wasted space in
the RAM expander. Afterall, the RAM1571 shows
331 KBytes free when freshly formatted and there
isa total of 512K available in the RAM expander.
What happens to the rest of the RAM?
Here's what happens: GEOS sets aside the first
64K of the RAM expansion device for its own use.
Several things are done with this area of RAM,
and part of itis used to hold up to four different—
or even similar—disk drivers. There's a spot for
each of drives, A through D. Yes, even drive D!
RAM Rebooting
If you've ever exited from GEOS to BASIC to do
something momentarily, and then reloaded
GEOS from disk, you'll appreciate the fact that
you can reboot GEOS from the RAM expander.
This is what the RBOOT program does for you.
RBOOT is a small program which is run from
BASIC that transfers some code that GEOS has
already stored in that first 64K of RAM into the
computer's memory. This transferred code is then
executed to get GEOS running again.
One thing tonote about using RBOOT to restart
GEOS: the routines that detect what kinds of
drives exist at the various device numbers are
skipped, so you may end up with a system crash
ifany of your device numbers have been changed
25
since exiting from GEOS. These crashes occur
because GEOS is using the wrong disk driver
information for the current drive.
MoveData
The remainder of the 64K of RAM is used
exclusively by a GEOS routine called MoveData.
Whenan application needs to move large chunks
ofmemory around within the computer, itusually
calls on the routine MoveData to do the job.
MoveData will do just that: move the data from
one location in the computer to another as
requested by the application, With some
applications, this is used quite frequently.
Believe it or not, MoveData can actually work
faster if it first moves data into a 17xx REU and
then back into the computer to the desired
location. This is because MoveData turns the job
over to the REU to do all the work. Ifa 17xx series
RAMexpanderisnot being used, then MoveData
will do the work itself.
So why is it faster to perform two memory
moves by going in and out of the RAM expansion
rather than just doing one move within the
computer? This anomaly is due to special
hardware capability that the 17xx
REU’s possess known as DMA, or
Direct Memory Access. It performs
this task at a speed that is 8 times
faster than moving the data within
the computer itself. You'll notice that
the CONFIGURE program has an option
to turn this function on or off. Normally, you
wouldn't have any reason to turn it off.
More on RAM Allocation
While there's no real documentation about this,
it’s generally accepted that RAM within a RAM
expansion device is allocated in chunks of 64K, or
what we programmers commonly refer to as
“banks”. As mentioned previously, GEOS grabs
the first 64K to use for system functions. The
RAMI1571 driver needs 341K. Since allocation
will occur in even 64K blocks, this means that
384K—6 banks of 64K—will be set aside for this
purpose. Even though there is 43K of that 384K
that it does not use, future versions of the driver
could possibly make use of this extra RAM in
some manner.
This still leaves 64K of unused space in a 512K
RAM expander. Is this wasted space? Not
necessarily. There are some applications—
geoCanvas and geoWizard come to mind—that
have been written to make use of this RAM.
Now that you're thoroughly educated on how
GEOS makes use of RAM expansion, let’s check
out some of the RAM expansion devices that are
available and see what they each have to offer.
COMMODORE WORLD
Commodore's 17xx Series REU’s
While we've already discussed the Commodore
17xx series REU’s to some degree, we'll give these
devices more complete coverage here. Since these
devices were produced by Commodore during
theheight of C64/128 popularity, they are without
question the most widely used RAM expansion
devices for our platform. Three different models
were produced: the 1700, 1764, and the 1750.
The 1750 REU (512K) allows you to configure
either one RAM1571 or two RAM1541's. As an
option, you could have one RAM1541 and a
shadow of your real 1541 drive. A Shadowed
1541 makes access to your 1541 disk faster, since
the access to the disk only needs to occur once.
Whenever a sector is read from the disk, it is not
only brought into memory as requested, but the
disk driver also stores it into the RAM
expander so that the next time the
sector needs to be read, it will be
read from RAM. Likewise, if a
sector is written, itis also written
tothe RAMexpander. Shouldyou
change the disk in the drive, then
the Shadowed 1541 in the RAM
expander is cleared and the
process begins again with the new disk,
The 1764 REU (256K) is just large enough to
contain a single 1541 ramdisk after the first 64K
bank is allocated to GEOS for system functions.
While it isn’t as versatile as the larger 1750, it
does give you the minimum requirements for
having a truly useful RAM device for GEOS.
The 1700 REU (128K) is not large enough to
contain aramdisk. However, GEOS willstill make
use of the 1700's first 64K bank in addition to the
second 64K bank being made available for any
application that might need it. So, even if this is
your only RAM expansion device, plug it in
anyway. You will have all the benefits of speed
and different drive types except for being able to
have a ramdisk.
It has also been popular to expand the 17xx
series units, Instructionsare available in the public
domain that detail how to expand these units to
1 or 2 Megabytes. There are also people that will
perform this task for you. If you belong to a local
user group, check with someone in the group.
Chances are, the file describing the upgrade is
available in your club’s library.
With 1 Megabyte of memory in your 17xx
device, you can configure a RAM1581 ramdisk.
With 2 Megabytes, you can have 2 RAMI581's.
Sometimes, a RAM1571 just isn’t big enough.
The 1750 Super Clone
This little device from Software Support
International is remarkable in that it will function
COMMODORE WORLD
just like a 1750 will with GEOS, Everything that
the 1750 can do, this will also do. Its beauty lies in
the fact that it is smaller (about the size of a
standard plug-in cartridge), and requires less
power from your power supply to operate it. It
even contains a DMA chip so that MoveData will
make use of it for speeding up memory moves.
GEORAM
GEORAM was developed and marketed by
Berkeley Softworks at a time when the 1750 was
still high priced and in short supply. It was
designed to use less power so that a bigger power
supply was not needed when used with the 64,
and therefore sold for a lower price. It also does
not contain a DMA chip. Because
of this, it’s a little slower
thanusinga 1750,
although
still
much faster
than using a real disk
drive. You can still have a
RAM1571 or two RAM1541's with a GEORAM.
A different CONFIGURE program is required
and was supplied with the device. The reason for
this is because GEORAM is accessed differently
than a 1750. Different routines must be patched
into the GEOS operating system in order to use it.
BBGRam
The BBGRam from Performance Peripherals
(PPI) is similar to the GEORAM in how it is
accessed. Just as the Super 1750 Clone is a clone
of Commodore’s 1750 REU, the BBGRam could
be considered to be a clone of Berkeley's
GEORAM. The BBGRam also comes supplied
with the special CONFIGURE files required to
use it with GEOS,
The‘G’ in BBGRam stands for GEOS, and so it
is intended mainly for GEOS. This is not to say it
can't be used outside of GEOS, but there just
aren'tany commercial programs that were written
to use it as such. But for GEOS users, it is a
blessing because the ‘BB’ in BBGRam stands for
‘Battery Backed’! Youcannowturn your computer
off at the end of the evening and everything in
your ramdisk will still be there when you come
back to it the next day. Before you start worrying
26
about how long the batteries last, though, let me
tell you that BBGRam actually derives its main
power from an included power supply—your
batteries aren't actually used unless there is a
power interruption or outage.
Because the RAM stays active, you can reboot
with BBG RBOOT evenifthe computer was turned
off and back on. And not having to reload your
ramdisk really speeds up the process of getting
‘up and running’. People that use ramdisks will
mostalways copy files froma real disk toa ramdisk
before actually beginning their work, but
BBGRam will save you the time and trouble of
doing this after the files have been initially
installed in the unit.
The BBGRam is available in a standard 512K
configuration that will give you the same options
as a standard GEORAM. But, it is also available
with Lor2 MegabytesofRAM. Witha2 Megabyte
unit, you can use the supplied software to create
up to five separate 1571 ramdisks!
Additional software allows you to
switch between these different
ramdisks. You could keep different
projectsin each ofthe separate areas.
Instead of having 5 1571 ramdisks,
you could instead have 2 1581
ramdisks. This can be beneficial if you
prefer using 1581 drives. Maybe your real
disk drive is a 1581. In that case it’s handier
to use a 1581 ramdisk when you want to copy a
whole disk from the ramdisk to a real disk for
backup purposes, or to load the ramdisk with
everything needed with just one operation.
While writing this article, I've been using a 2
Megabyte BBGRam plugged into an Aprospand
cartridge port expander. Also plugged into this
Aprospand unit is a TurboMaster CPU cartridge
that allows me to run GEOS 64 at a speed of 4.09
MHz. Talk about a fast combination! These two
units—the BBGRam and TurboMaster—have
been working together flawlessly.
PPI’s RAMDrive
Here is one handy little device for use with GEOS.
The RAMDrive from Performance Peripherals
can be used with GEOS in much the same manner
as the BBGRam, although accessing the device is
performed differently. There are, however, some
additional benefits to this difference in access.
You see, RAMDrive may also be seen as a DOS
device outside of GEOS—just like a real disk
drive. The same ramdisk that you use from within
GEOS may also be used asa DOS partition outside
of GEOS. There are different disk drivers available
that access the partitions of the RAMDrive as
though it was just a simple RAM device and
others that access it as though it was a DOS device
Issue 8
with a real device number. The advantage to
using it as a DOS device means that you can
directly boot GEOS from it, providing the correct
driver is in place. And from outside of GEOS, you
can backup your partitions to floppy disks by
using a supplied whole disk copier.
RAMDrive, like the BBGRam, operates from
its own power supply, and has backup batteries
for protection against power loss. The batteries
arerecharged by the powersupply, and are located
inside the RAMDrive making this device ideal for
transporting data between two or
more computers.
Initially, RAMDrive came in
three capacities: 512K, 1 Megabyte,
and 2 Megabytes. Recent
information from PPI, however,
seems to indicate that only the latter
twomodelsare still being produced
and sold.
RAMDrive has a DOS (Disk
Operating System) which must be installed in the
upper part of the unit’s RAM, and which takes up
66K of the memory. After this installation, a 1
Megabyte RAMDrive has enough space to hold
one 1581 partition (ramdisk) while giving GEOS
either 64K or 128K of system RAM. (Remember,
an extra bank of RAM could be useful to some
GEOS applications.) A 2 Megabyte RAMDrive
couldhavetwo 1581 partitions while giving GEOS
either 64K or 128K of system RAM. In addition,
another 196K would be available for creation ofa
standard RAM1541 ramdisk. While other
configurations are possible, these seem to be the
most useful from the point of view of a GEOS
user.
CMD’s RAMLink
The RAMLink from Creative Micro Designs
should have had a different name. It should have
been called ‘RamKing’, Perhapsit started outasa
link to your RAM expansion device, but by the
time it made it to production, RAMLink became
much more than that. In addition to, or even
instead of, being able to plug in your 17xx series
REU or GEORAM to use with GEOS, you can
install RAM directly inside the RAMLink. In fact
you can have as much as 16 Megabytes of the
stuff! And you can make use of it both in and out
of GEOS, just like the RAMDrive.
For a heavy GEOS user, the RAMLink gives
you the most possibilities available with any RAM
device ever. This product is perhaps the most
remarkable device ever produced for the
Commodore 64 or 128, and ranks right up there
with products produced for other computers.
Remember when | mentioned that some
applications might be written to use a 64K bank
Volume 2, Number 3
for its own purpose? Well don't be surprised if
someday an application is written that willrequire
much more than this. The RAMLink might be the
only way to go.
With a 17xx series REU plugged into the
RAMLink, you can also take advantage of the
DMA capabilities of the REU for GEOS. GEOS
will still utilize the first 64K bank of RAM, and
that RAM will be located in the REU.
On the back of the RAMLink is a parallel port
for connection to a CMD Hard Drive. Normally
this port is not used from within
GEOS, since the GEOS Disk Turbo
routines for the HD only use the
serial port. However, there is a
parallel driver that has just been
developed for HD native partitions
with the 128 which is undergoing
testing by a few individuals. Disk
access to the HD is
considerably faster
with this parallel driver. Expect to
see thisas well as additional parallel
drivers for 1581 partitions for both
the 64 and 128 being made
available in the future.
Naturally, the RAMLink has its
own power supply and also comes
with an optional battery backup. It
also can be fitted with a Real-Time Clock chip,
and comes with a GEOS autoexec file for
automatically setting the GEOS clock during
bootup. After you've used a RAMLink for awhile,
you'll think it’s just another disk drive connected
toyoursystem—only much faster. And youwon't
know how to get along without it.
BBU
Although not a RAM expansion device, this
ingenious piece of hardware does deserve mention
here. The BBU, another device from Performance
Peripherals, is a cartridge that plugs into the
cartridge port and has a slot that will accept
either a 17xx REU ora GEORAM. BBU stands for
Battery BackUp, and allows your RAM expander
to retain its memory just like the BBGRam does.
In fact, a GEORAM plugged into the BBU will
function essentially the sameasa512K BBGRam.
The 128’S Bank Zero RAM
Not really RAM expansion so to speak, however
a portion of the 64K RAM that resides in bank 0
on the 128 could in a sense be considered
expansion RAM. Itis worth mentioning here just
for informational value. Unlike BASIC programs
which run in bank zero on the 128, GEOS
applications run in bank one. In fact, a good
portion of bank one appears very similar to that
27
Werketey
Softworks
of GEOS 64. There are some differences to
accommodate the 128’s needs, but the biggest
difference is in how GEOS uses bank one.
Unlike GEOS 64, you can use GEOS 128 with
two disk drives of different types. The reason is
because GEOS stores both disk drivers in bank
zero memory when RAM expansion is not in use.
The driver that is being used is run from the usual
location in bank one just as it would be on the 64,
then when the other drive needs to be accessed,
GEOS will swap positions with each driver.
On the 64, the printer driver always has to be
loaded in from disk... not so on the 128. Again,
GEOS stores a copy of it in bank zero. When an
application calls for the printer driver, GEOS will
bring it into place in bank one.
If you ever run a desk accessory in GEOS 128,
you may have noticed that they seem to load
much faster, On the 64, theareaofmemory where
the desk accessory will occupy is
temporarily stored in a temporary
disk file (called a “swap file”) before
the desk accessory is loaded. When
youexit the desk accessory, thedata
from the temporary file is reloaded
back into place. This is how an
application can consume all
available memory and still be able
to load in a desk accessory. With
GEOS 128, the area the desk accessory will occupy
is instead transferred to an area in bank zero.
When finished, that area is moved back into bank
one. So, even an exit from a desk accessory is
quicker on the 128.
Even some of the GEOS applications
themselves—the 128 Desktop included—make
use of the extra RAM in bank zero. Additional
data might be stored there and brought into bank
one when needed.
Look Around!
Ifyou love using GEOS but haven't gotten around
to getting RAM expansion, look around. Check
the surplus stores and rummage sales. Chances
are you'll finda 1750 ora GEORAM lying around
just waiting for you. You can still buy the 1750
Super Clone brand new. Ifyou can afford it, go for
the BBGRam, the RAMDrive, or the RAMLink.
Assess your needs and your desires and always
think big! If you are thinking about the 512K
BBGRam, go for the 1 Megabyte unit instead. If
you are contemplating the RAMLink with 1
Megabyte installed, go for 4 Megabytes. Soon,
you'll wish it had 8 Megabytes. No matter what
you decide, if you're serious about GEOS, get
some RAM expansion. After all, don’t you think
your 1541 deserves a break?
%)
COMMODORE WORLD
RAMLink Base Model (OMB, No RAMCard)
RAMLink w/1 MB RAMCard (Limited Time) ..
$149.00
$199.00
HD-40, 42 MB (Limited Supply) ..
HD-85, 85 MB (Limited Supply)...
HD-170, 170 MB (Special Edition) ......... RAMLink w/4 MB RAMCard (Limited Time) «+ $339.00
HD-340, 340 MB (Special Edition) . RAMCard RTC Option/Kit . «vss $10.00/$19.00
HD-500, 500+ MB (Special Edition) $499.00 RAMLink Battery Back-up (Optional) . $24.95
HD-1000, 1 GB (Special Edition) $779.00 Paralle! Cable (RAMLink to HD) . $14.95
MIDI & Sou
FD Series 3.5” Floppy Disk Drives
FD-; 2000 (800K and 1,6 MB)....... .. $179.95
FD-4000 (800K, 1.6 MB and 3.2 MB) . senses $249,95
FD Real-Time-Clock Option/Kit . $20,00/$29,00
Box of 10, High Density Disks (1,6MB)
Box of 10, Enhanced Density Disks (3.2 MB)......
Digimas:
SID Symphony Stereo Cartridge
Sonus 64 Sequencer, MIDI Interface, Cables
Sonus 128 Seque: MIDI Interface, Cables
s & Compilers
BASIC 64 Compiler (Abacus) ....
BASIC 128 Compiler (Abacus) ..
Blitz! 64 Compiler (Skyles)
Blitz! 128 Compiler (Skyles)
Buddy 64/128 Assembler
Cobol 64 (Abacus) ......
| Fortran 64 (Abacus)
Pascal 64 (Abacus) .....
Power C 64 (Spinnaker) .
TrOUuUCtwELy
-.. $99.00
$99.00
(Specify computer serial number and drive model)
JitfyDOS C64/SX-64 System .
JiffyDOS C-128/128-D System
Additional Drive ROM' 8
80-column Monitors (Refurb) ..
Aprotek 3-Way User Port Expat
Aprotek User Port Extension Cable ....
C-64/64-C Computers (Refurb, w/JD)
C-64, C-64C Power Supply (Repairable) a Ten oan”
C-128 Power Supply (Repairable) .......... Chartpak 64 (Abacus) ;
Cannon BJ-200ex Bubble Jet Printer .....,
Cannon BJC-4000 Color Bubble Jet Printer
Commodore 1541 Disk Drives (NEW, w/JD)
Commodore 1541 Disk Drives (Refurb, w/JD)....
Chartpak 128 (Abacus) siesta ni paeanne
| Paint v1.5 (128, 80-col,, DC) (Living Proo
| Port v1.54 (128, 80-col., 64K VDC) (Living Proof)
Outrageous Pages (Batteries Included) ...............
PaperClip 3 64/128 (Batteries Included) ...
Personal Portfolio Manager (Abacus) ....
$75.00
Commodore 1541-11 Disk Drive (Refurb, w/JD) . $109.00
Commodore 1802 40-column Monitor (Refurb) . $139.00
CMD EX2+1 3-Port Cartridge Port Expander ...... $39.95
CMD EX3 3-Port Cartridge Port Expander ........ $28.95 pocket Winter 3 (64 cr 128) (Digal SO)
CMD Gamepad/Joystick Controller ...... vos $24.95 Pocket Planner 2 or Pocket Filer 2 (Digital Sol. )..
CMD GeoCabie I! Print Cable 6f/15tt. .... $29.00/$34.00 powerPian 64 (ADACUS) ....-ccccccesecesesesssssverssversne
CMD SmartMouse (1351 Compatible Mouse) ..... $49.95 RUN Productivity Pak |, Il, of Ill (Specify) «oc...
CMD SmartTrack (1351 compen berecremr $69.95 RUN Super Starter Pak 1541 of 1581
Monitor Cables CALL RUN Works ..
MOUSE POD si siviicorrsssiceiinsiveninarnecaessieriinss . $2.95
SEC Check Register 128 .,
SuperScript 64 (Precision) ..
SuperScript 128 (Precision) ..
Suberbase 64 Version 3.01 (Precision)
Superbase 128 Version 3,01 (Precision)
SwiftCale 64 (Timeworks)
Tax Perfect 64 (Free ‘94 Upgrade)
Tax Perfect 128 (Free '94 Upgrade) .,
TWS 64 w/Speller (Busy Bee)
TWS 128 w/Speller (Busy Bee) .
TWS Modules (HD/AL/Iilustrator)
Siocommunications
Aprotek MiniModem C-24 (C« ready, 2400 baud) $69,00
Aprotek MiniModem C (C= ready, 1200 baud) .... $50.00
Aprotek Modem adapter (C= to Ext. PC Modem) $20,00
MW-350 Printer interlace (OK/8K Butter) $49 00/$60. 00
Samsung SP-0912 9-pin Epson-comp, Printer ..... $139,00
Samsung SP-2412 24-pin Epson-comp. Printer ... $179.00
Samsung SP-2417 foe -pin Color Printer ..
Big Blue Reader V4,10 IRS WAP ‘
CMD Utilities 7
JiffyMON-64 (ML Monitor) .
Tho Compression Kit ‘94 (Mad Man)
Collette Utilities (Handy Geos Utilities) ..
Desk Pack Plus
Dweozils Greatest Hits (NowTools2
FONTPACK Plus 00
gateWay 64 or 128 (Specify Version) . pias ot ranagaca 3
QEOBASIC osnscssrsreessseersnneernssernnsrnensenrunngeaseay BOCA 14.4K bps FaxModem ....... 5
geoCalc 64/128 , BOCA 14.4K w/SwittLink & Cable . ;
alos ennseseze BOCA V.34 28.8K bps FaxModem $259.00
geoFile 64/128 BOCA V.34 w/SwittLink & Cable $289,00
geoMakeBoot (Makes Bootable © copies). j Dialogue 128 .. $29.00
geoProgrammer sssenneny SpeedTerm (Abacus $25.00
geoPublish SwiftLink RS-232 Cartridge (Up to 38.4K K baud). $39.95
GEOS 64 v2.0
SwiftLink Modem Cable (DB9-DB25) .. . $9.95
GEOS 128 v2.0
QeoSHELL V2.2 (CLI for GEOS)
International FONTPACK
Pertect Print LQ for GEOS (Laser-like output) a
RUN GEOS Companion ........
RUN GEOS Power Pak lor il (Specity) ...
Books
Anatomy of the 1541........
Basic Compiler Design for the C 64. Island of the Dr. gon.
C-64 Science & Engineering ... y Laser Squad oo...
C128 Computer Aided Design .............. $12.00 Lions of the Universe $19.95
C128 BASIC Training Guide . $12.00 Maintrame .... $13.00
Cassette Book for C-64 and Vic 20,,
Commodore 64 Tricks and Tips.......
GEOS Programmers Reference Guide
Graphics Book for the C-64
Hitchhikers Guide to GEOS .
Menace ....
Navy Seal ....
Rings of Medusa ..
RUN C128 Funpak .
RUN C64 Gamepak
Ideas for Use on Your C-64 . $12.00 Skate or Die ............ $13.00
Printer Book for the C64 00 The Amazing Spider-Man $15.00
Mapping the C64 ...., The President Is Missing! h
Simple Internet ...... The Three Stooges
supartass - The Book ., i ve rides Tennis .,
otal Eclipse
UtimaV
Handvacaner.: bateeedaltiates ai .00 Wings of Cire
PAQOION seesesscossersieronsien Wizardry 5: Heart o
Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
P.O. Box 646
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Info: (413) 525-0023
Fax: (413) 525-0147
ChAD
COMMODORE WORLD 28
Increase Speed Up to 1500% while
retaining 100% compatibility
° Speeds up Loading, Saving, Verifying, Formatting and Reading/
Writing of Program, Sequential, User and Relative files unlike
cartridges which only speed up Loading and Saving of PRG files
* Built-in DOS Wedge plus 17 additional features including file
copier, text dump, printer toggle, and redefinable function keys
make using your computer easier and more convenient
* ROMupgrade installs easily into most computers and disk drives.
Supports C-64, 64C, SX-64, C-128, 128-D, 1541, 1541C, 1541-
11,1571, 1581 and more.
FDSeries
3.2 and 1.6 MB 3.5" Floppy Drives
The FD-2000 and FD-4000 disk drives utilize
today's latest 3.5 inch disk drive technology.
FD-2000's support 800K (1581 style) and
1,6 MB (High Density) formats, while the
FD-4000 also offers support for the 3.2 MB (Enhanced Density)
disk format. Fast and reliable, they support 1541, 1571 and 1581
style partitions, Native Mode partitioning and can actually read and
write 1581 disks. FD's feature built-in JiffyDOS, SWAP button and
optional Real Time Clock. High capacity, speed and compatibility
make the FD right for every application, including GEOS.
Power-Backed Expandable REU
The fastest possible form of storage,
RAMLink provides instant access to files
and retains data while your computer is
turned off. Easy to use and expandable up
to 16 MB, RAMLink utilizes the same powerful operating system
found in CMD Hard Drives. Unlike Commodore REU's which are
compatible with less than 1% of commercial software, RAMLink
supports more than 80% of the commercial titles. RAMLink also
offers built-in JiffyYOOS Kernal, SWAP feature, reset button, enable/
disable switch, pass-thru port and RAM port for REU/GEORAM use.
RAMLink offers maximum speed, expandability and compatibility
with all types of software and hardware including GEOS,
=
DSeries.
SCSI Hard Drive for the C-64/128
HD Series Hard Drives are available in
capacities up to 1 GB, are fully partitionable,
and can emulate 1541, 1571, & 1581 disks
while Native partitions utilize MS-DOS-style
subdirectories. HD's connect easily to the serial bus or parallel via
RAMLink. Includes built-in JiffyDOS, SWAP feature and RTC. HD's
offer superior compatibility with most commercial software including
BBS, Productivity and GEOS. And with new pricing, HD Series drives
offer the lowest cost per megabyte of any C64/128 storage device.
wy
Shipping and Handling Charges
Use the chart below to match your order subtotal with your shipping zone and method.
Continental United States
fone subtt _ovoura | day_| Bey. | wePr [cana [rvin
foor-siom | sow | seen | 7m] srz00| ss00 | 500]
conse | sco] sn00| samo] siamo] o7 | s200 |
fsoonssom | samo | soc | 000 | sis00| 000 | ses00]
Toonsiaom | sem | siamo | wae | sino | see | #00]
s1soansa9m | s1000 | src | 2700 | s2rco | 2000 | ss00 |
sooo vom sv500 | so00| eco | sore | e2n00 | e500]
fseoocos | s2000 | ses00 | 1000 | saeco | 2000 | se |
UPS C.0.D. add $5.00 (U.S/PR only)
Payment and Delivery: CMD accepts MC, Visa, Money Orders, COD and Personal
Checks. Personal Checks are held for up to 3 weeks. Most items are stock, contact CMD
for current delivery schedules, Returns for merchandise credit only within 30 days with
prior authorizations. All prices and specifications are subject to change without notice
Issue 8
Need Input? It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This...
For years, Commodore set the standard with the 1351
Mouse. Sure, it was vastly superior to using the old
digital input devices like the 1350 mouse, joysticks or
imitation trackballs. But everything can be improved.
Guaranteed 100% 1351-compatible, SmartMouse and
SmartTrack do everything the C-1351 does and more!
These highly intelligent, three-button input devices
include a built-in battery-backed Real-Time Clock,
along with double-click and Turbo features for GEOS.
Plus, they come with a complete set of utilities for using
the clock in GEOS and BASIC applications. Modern
ergonomic designs make these devices smooth
operators that are a pleasure to use. So, if you're tired
of the slow, erratic movement of your current input
device, make the intelligent choice and pick up a
SmartMouse or SmartTrack today!
* Three buttons means convenience! If you're a GEOS user, the left
button is configured as single click, the right as a handy double
click and the center button is the TURBO button. When depressed,
it doubles the speed at which the pointer moves across the screen.
Additionally, programmers can assign their own functions to all
three of the buttons.
« Unlike other third party mice or trackballs, the CMD SmartMouse
and SmartTrack trackball use the same custom gate array chip as
the Commodore C-1351 mouse. This guarantees 100% compatibility.
¢ Switches easily into joystick emulation mode on power-up by
holding down the right button.
LOADED WITH
SPECIAL FEATURES
¢ Freeze Feature
Lets you save most programs
to disk without copy protection
¢ Centronics Interface
Use a fast GEOCABLE to
print with most software
® Built-in Copier
Make fast disk and file copies
© Sprite Editor
Create and edit sprites
¢ ML Monitor CO.
Examine all memory including »~s
stack, I/O, & registers é
¢ Blow-up g)
Make any portion of a picture
up to the full size of the
screen ERIENDLY AND FEATURE
¢ Message Maker PACKEDUTIEITY” g
Turn any captured screen or CARTRIDGE EVER _-
graphic into a scrolling CONCEIVED!
message with music
PLUS...
Infinite Lives Generator
Screen Editor
Printer Dump
Slide Show Maker
..- AND MORE!
Urgy EU
CARTE
4
THE MOST POWERFUL,
Volume 2, Number 3
SmartMouse and SmartTrack... the Best C-64/128 Input Devices Ever!
29
SmartMouse/SmartTrack utilize the same advanced technology used
in today's powerful 486 and Pentium PC's, providing you with
unparalleled accuracy and smoothness.
Built-in battery-backed Real-Time Clock automatically sets the GEOS
clock, displays time and can be used in your own programs.
Includes utilities disk and detailed manual explaining the utilities
and programming information.
Attention Lefties! SmartMouse can be alterred for left handed use.
Don't be fooled by the old style digital "trackballs". These only
perform as well as a joystick. SmartTrack uses analog inputs for
greater accuracy.
Tired of Fighting with Copy Protection?
Having Trouble Booting Software from a CMD Device?
Need a Back-up of Your Hard-to-Find Software?
Then It's Time To Take ACTION!
FETT
GE
‘TE
r Pa "TE SP 7
va 4 /
/ cate Pa - > rg e
ACTION
REPLAY
Luu, s\sthuu itsyluy Curtridyss
Silpysd fy fis U5. les Jarzluu 3.2 FOR THE C64 OR C128 IN 64 MODE
COMMODORE WORLD
Lottoman & Lottoman
Picking a Winner
LottoMan; $19.95; Lottoman II;
$19.95; by John Nelson & Dave Bell;
Lottoman, P.O, Box 44, New Millport
PA 16861.
The LottoMan programs, LottoMan
and LottoMan II, add excitement to
playing the lottery. A lot of people
believe there is a pattern to the
random numbers drawn in the
various lottery games. These
programs allow serious lottery
players to enter winning lottery
numbers in a database where the
numbers can then be analyzed in a
number of ways.
Thefirst program in the LottoMan
series contains the tools to create
your own lottery database and
analyze the data. Before you can do
this, you'll need to get a record of
previous lottery drawings. It’s best
to get the winning numbers from as
far back as possible. As stated in the
manual, LottoMan itself is a data
hungry program; the more
information you can feed it, the
better the results it can provide.
When I received this program to
review, [didnothave my own record
of previous drawings. I was able to
obtain alist ofthe winning numbers
for the past year from my local
grocery store. It took me
approximately an hour to enter all
the data. I felt the data entry editor
could have been just a tad easier to
use. To advance to the field for the
COMMODORE WORLD
next number, you must press the
right cursor key. It would have been
easier if the program could
automatically advance to the next
field, but then, I guess you wouldn't
be able to edit your number if a
mistake was made. Anyways, it did
takeawhile before | was comfortable
with the lottery number entry editor.
Lottoman
The LottoMan program can be
used for any lottery game which uses
thenumbers 1 through 99 and draws
atleast 5 numbersand no more than
10. LottoMan doesn't allow for
lottery games which draw a duplicate
number such as an “alternate”. The
manual states the program does not
aim to help you select all of the
numbers required towin thejackpot,
but to select enough winning
numbers to at least win something.
In my book, winning alittle is better
than nothing at all.
Once you've enteredall your data,
you can begin analyzing the
information. This was fun! It’s
interesting to see which numbers
were drawn the most and the least.
LottoMan also provides an average
and rating of number occurrences
by comparing the occurrences of
each number with the number of
lottery games played. The rating can
be displayed on the screen or be sent
to your printer, making it very easy
to see which numbers are hot and
which are cold. One other helpful
bit of information is the occurrence
of specific number combinations.
This feature allows you to input two
numbers and the program will tell
you how many times those numbers
were drawn together in the past.
Another very useful option is the
play/check ticket item. From this
selection you can add or delete your
actual ticket. You can also check to
see how many times your ticket has
hit in the past.
Other options allow you to view
the history ofa desired number and
divide your database into sectors for
an even more in-depth analysis. If
your lottery game uses a total of 48
different numbers, you would have
5 different sectors... 4 with ten
numbers and the final sector with
the 8 remaining numbers. From
here, youcan determine the number
of occurrences of individual sectors.
The program can even provide youa
graph of these sector occurrences.
If you'd like even more number
power, you'll also want to purchase
LottoMan II. LottoMan IT is used to
30
generate numbers and detect
patterns, such asincreasing patterns,
among the winning numbers.
LottoMan II also contains a
number occurrence feature with
different variations suchas numbers
appearing the most in a month,
numbers due to hit according to
average, andetc. The Ticket database
can also be accessed through
LottoMan II, You can delete tickets
here, but unfortunately, you can’t
add them. To doso, you'll have to re-
load the first LottoMan program.
This proves tobealittleinconvenient
and frustrating at times.
Lottoman II
Ofthe two programs, LottoMan II
is definitely more complicated. But
both programs come with excellent
documentation to help you through
those rough spots, and both will be
useful to lottery game enthusiasts.
But remember: even armed with
both of these great programs, you
can’t win if you don't play!
- Sherry Freedline
%)
Issue 8
Accessories: Leroy’s Cheatsheets
$3.95 each; Cheatsheet Products &
Keystone Software (CPD, P.O, Box
8369, Pittsburgh PA 15218; (412)
243-1049. Partial listing (C64):
Disk-1541; GEOS 2.0; For The
Beginner; SwiftCalc; Flight Simulator
I; BASIC 2.0; Word Writer 4, 5 & 6;
Paper Clip IT; Blank. (C128): For The
Beginner; Superscript 128; Blank,
Leroy’s Cheatsheets have been
around for almost as long as I can
remember. Unfortunately for me,
they are oneofthoseitems!’vealways
meant to purchase but neveractually
gotaround to buying. And, now that
I've actually seen and used them, |
wish | hadn’t procrastinated for so
long. They make programming,
game playing, and productivity
sessions so much simpler!
Leroy’s Cheatsheets are keyboard
overlays containing function key
definitions and other relevant
information for the various
programs and subjects they cover.
Two sizes/layouts are used for the
Commodore 64 and 128 computers.
Blank overlays are also available for
use with programs and other
subjects that are not already
provided by CPI.
At the moment, I am using the
BASIC 2.0 overlay on my
Commodore 64. This particular
overlay features definitions and
shortcut key combinations for
programming statements, numeric
functions, commands, string
functions, I/O statements, as well as
vital disk commands, device number
listings, and how to list a program
on the printer. Without the overlay,
I'd have to look for the desired
information in my manual. Now |
have it right at my fingertips.
Needless to say,
Cheatsheets can be a handy time
saver. And since each of the overlays
is quite thin, I can easily store a
number of them right on my
Leroy’s
keyboard—one on top of the other.
This way, they're always right where
I need them, when I need them.
A quick glance at the Cheatsheets
available shows that CPI provides
for a wide variety of programs such
as Word Processors, Spreadsheets,
Database programs—even games
such as Flight Simulator I. Andwith
the blank sheets, overlays forall your
programs—even the commands
used for an online network—
become an almost instant reality.
As you can see, the possibilities
are nearly endless! So, the next time
you have to reach for a manual, you
might want to reach for the phone
instead—and order a Cheatsheet
from CPI!
-Sherry Freedline
»)
Bookware: Ram Dos 128 Case Study
$19.95; by Brett J. Tabke; distributed
by Parsec, P.O. Box 111, Salem MA
01970-0111.
I love information. Anyone who
knows my name from the Internet
or other places knows I simply crave
it. Inmy mind, learning isan endless
process, and one can never learn
enough. Thus, | am writing you
about the latest piece ofinformation
that has crossed my desk: Ram Dos
128 Case Study by Brett J. Tabke.
This reference provides both
information on, and a complete
commented disassembly of, Ram
Dos 128—a program that allows
Ram Expansion Unit (REU) users to
use the REU as a ram disk drive.
Most people understand what
functions Ram Dos 128 provides,
but few people really understand
how it provides those functions.
The bookis divided into two main
portions. The first 17 pages
introduces the reader to the Ram
Dos 128 system, while the following
pages presents the reader with a
complete annotated disassembly of
the Ram Dos 128 code. The reader is
assumed to have used Ram Dos 128
and know how to read machine
language code.
Volume 2, Number 3
The first part ofthe book provides
for the easiest reading, as the latter
part is simply commented source.
Thereareanumber oftopics covered
in the first part, however, including:
¢ A general overview of how the
Ram Dos 128 software performs
its task
Differences between Ram Dos 128
and real Commodore drives
The possible error codes that Ram
Dos 128 can return
of a corrupted ram disk.
The physical layout of various data
structures in the ram disk
* The different revisions of RAM
Expansion Units (REUs) that
Commodore manufactured and
their differences
¢ The practice of expanding REU
hardware to2 megabytesand how
Ram Dos 128 handles the
expanded memory
It should be noted at this point that
the book is not for everyone. Those
who wish to modify Ram Dos 128,
write programs to make efficient use
of Ram Dos 128 and its functions,
and those who strive to replicate the
function of Ram Dos 128 in other
31
Possible ways to recover data off
programs will find the greatest value
in the book. However, the first part
covered topics that are of general
interest to all people.
Two topics caught my attention
right away. Inone section, the author
describes the differences in the
various REU units Commodore
produced. The detail of the
presentation is apparent. Theauthor
even goes so far as to suggest possible
modifications to REU units to solve
incompatibility problems if they
exist. From this section, one can
discern that the author has actually
studied the units and has tried many
different configurations. This
bolsters my confidence in his
disassembly presentedin the second
part. Another section describes the
use of expanded REUs, Most REU
owners know that the REU can be
expanded to512KB conventionally,
and can be expanded to 1 or 2 MB
with some additional hardware. The
author describes the possible
problems with using the stock Ram
Dos 128 routines with the 2MBREUs
and how to the
problems.
Aswith most references, however,
this book has some annoyances.
There is no index, so one can't
circumvent
quickly look up routines or
important keywords. An index can
prove invaluablein a reference work,
and the lack of one makes finding
information harder. Another minor
annoyance is somewhat related. In
the first part, the author notes that
the Ram Dos 128 code uses every
“programming technique in the
book” and “invents a few as well”.
However, the author stops short of
providing a pointer to these
examples. The reader is left to find
them on his or her own. Finally, the
author notes that patches are needed
to use Ram Dos 128 with 1 or 2MB
REU units, but | couldn't find any
more information about these
patches. With many REU owners
moving up to 1 and 2MB REUs, this
information is somewhat necessary.
As stated earlier, those delving
into using or re-writing Ram Dos
128 routines orconceptsshould have
this reference in their libraries. The
book space with
unnecessary information, so every
page is full of good material. Even in
spite of its omissions, this work
presents only quality information
and presents it well.
wastes no
-/im Brain
»)
COMMODORE WORLD
Heavenbound
Electric Boys Entertainment Software
Available from CMD
Unfortunately, these days new
programs for the Commodore
computer are few and far between.
Thank goodness that the crew at
Creative Micro Designs, who
continually strive to provide hungry
Commodore enthusiasts with new
high quality products, have recently
entered into an agreement with
Electric Boys Entertainment
Software of Purley, England.
Heavenbound is the first result of this
agreement to convert and import
high-quality Commodore games
into North America.
Heavenbound itself presents
Commodore game players with an
all new arcade challenge. The land
of Elfantania, the mythical setting
for Heavenbound, isfilled with bright,
colorful graphics which are sure to
dazzle players ofallages. A delightful
toe-tapping tune rings through the
airas you play, andit won't take long
before you'll find yourselfhumming
right along with this catchy ditty.
The main character of this
mythical land is T-Fant, none other
than a pink elephant. As the brief
documentation that accompanies
COMMODORE WORLD
Heavenbound
Arkanoid Il
The President is Missing
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
the game points out, it’s against the
law for a pink elephant to be seen at
times of complete sanity. Regardless
of this fact, there's apparently no
stopping T-Fant from pursuing his
life-long dream: to discover Heaven.
Your mission, should you decide
to acceptit (and you will!), is to help
guide T-Fant upwards into Heaven.
Thisis done by jumping froma piece
of land on the side of the screen toa
cloud, then uptoanother cloud, over
and up to another piece ofland... eh,
you get the picture. Of course, it’s
not all that easy. On your way up
you'llencountera slew ofnasty cloud
demons and creepy creatures.
Confrontations with these evil
enemies could result in the loss of
one of your three initial lives. The
presence of a timer adds to the
challenge of this one player game.
Unlike most scrolling games, the
screen in Heavenbound scrolls
upwards (or downwards if you
happen to fall) instead of scrolling
left to right.
As I mentioned earlier, you need
to guide T-Fant upwards from cloud
to cloud using of a joystick or a
gamepad in the joystick port. That
sounds quite easy, but many of the
clouds are situated so that jumping
to the next cloud is quite a trick in
itself. At first, you may even find
yourselfbecoming a bit frustrated—
but with practice and a little
patience, you'll be amply rewarded!
Some of the clouds are inhabited
by your worst nightmare, but never
fear... you're equipped with plenty
ofmonster-hating bullets. One press
of your fire-button and they'll be
blasted to smithereens. Bonuses
containing extended time, increased
shot power, and extra lives can also
be found hidden among the
clouds—and you'll need to locate
and use these to complete the game.
So, whatare you waiting for? Dust
off that joystick! Finally, there's a
new game in town! Doyouhave what
ittakes tomakeit to Heaven? There's
only one way to find out for sure...
play Heavenbound!
- Sherry Freedline
Arkanoid Il: The Revenge
of Doh
Taito
Available from SSI
Arkanoid makes me recall days long
ago, when I spent many hours
playing the classic video game Break
Out on an Atari 2600 game system.
For those of whoaren'tacquainted
with Break Out, the game resembles
a solitaire version of Pong; but
instead of merely trying to return
the ball, you must also aim the ball
at a multitude of blocks to remove
them from the screen. Once all the
blocks have been cleared away, you
move on to a new and progressively
more challenging level.
32
Around 1988, Taito introduced
Arkanoid—a one- or two-player
space-aged rendition of Break Out.
Each of Arkanoid’s 33 levels is a
“cosmic void” containing one or
more barriers constructed of colorful
energy blocks. As youcruise through
space in your ship, Vaus2, you must
deflect energy balls to destroy these
blocks and ultimately Doh, who
threatens civilization. Some energy
blocks must be hit twice before
they'll vanish, while some others
cannot be destroyed at all. Upon
destruction, some energy blocks
release a special capsule containing
features which can arm your ship
with a laser, expand the width of
your ship, award an extra ship, open
the gate to the next level, and more!
Alien life forms also swarm
through the “cosmic void” in a
desperate attempt to distract your
efforts of destroying the energy
blocks. Clear the void and the gates
open to reveal a new and even more
challenging level. Eventually, you'll
meet up with Doh.
A year after the release of the
original, Arkanoid I/ hit the shelves
with 67 new levels, 4 new capsules,
and better graphics. Now up to four
players could compete against each
other. In Arkanoid IJ you must
destroy Doh’s flagship Xorg. A
mouse is recommended for both
versions but options are provided
for game play with a keyboard,
joystick, or paddle.
Game play is definitely addicting
due to the desire to view the next
successive screen and, of course, to
finally beat and conquer Doh or
Issue 8
GAMES - MINIVIEWS - GAMES - MINI
INUWUEWIS
GAMES - MINIVIEWS - GAMES - MINIVIEWS -
GAN ESE ANLIIN
ml
IMULNUWUBATS e
Xorg. Arkanoid IT thankfully lacks
one feature which | found very
frustrating in the original Arkanoid.
After the loss of your last ship, the
original sends you back to the title
screen where you have to sit through
the whole introduction again, when
all you really want to do is play the
game, However, frustrations still
exist in Arkanoid I] when you are
sent back to the very first level after
the loss of your last ship. There are
no options to continue the game
from the last level you mastered. But,
there is a way around this, with a
cartridge such as Action Replay you
can locate a Poke to provide yourself
with infinite ships. | know, that’s
cheating, but it does indeed end the
frustrations. And, even with infinite
lives, it takes an enormous amount
of time to play through 67 levels!
With all of Arkanoid II’s colorful
graphics, nifty sound effects, and
challenging game play betyoucan’t
play just one round!
- Sherry Freedline
The President is Missing!
Cosmi
Available from CMD
Today (June 6, 1996), began just like
every other day—until I walked
outside, Upon entering the darkand
dreary hallway of my apartment
complex I stumbled over a package
wrapped in plain brown paper.
Volume 2, Number 3
Quickly, I returned to my
apartment, My errands could wait.
The package was begging to be
opened. Inside I founda note written
ona piece of brown paper like that of
a paper grocery bag, several other
documents, a cassette tape, and two
disks.
After hastily scanning the note
and its accompanying documents |
became horrified as I realized the
President and the leaders of the
European nations had been
abducted. I had been chosen by the
Vice President to head the
investigation of the most notorious
crime ever committed!
You may also be awarded this
challenge with The President is
Missing from Cosmi. The game has
two goals; first locate the President
along with the other abductees and
then identify those responsible for
the kidnapping.
The enclosed disks provide access
to the Special Intelligence System. A
hacker-like feeling is experienced as
the security access file is established
and the Special Intelligence System
is explored for the first time. The
system contains almost everything
needed to solve the investigation
including case-related dossiers,
photographs, documents, records,
case files, reports, and highly
confidential information. The only
thing the system doesn’t contain is
the puzzle-solving skills necessary
to solve the crime—you'll have to
provide those yourself.
An added to bonus to the game is
the cassette tape featuring audio
evidence transcript files. These
transcripts contain audio clips vital
to solving the kidnapping case.
The game’s graphics feature a
window-style presentation of the
various text files and photographs.
G/\, Mil J i> 2
VIEWS - GAME
mY ae
The environment is appropriately
rounded off with an assortment of
bleeps and blips produced as data is
transferred from the Special
Intelligence System to your
Commodore.
Well, time is wasting... there’s a
mystery to be solved! Find out ifyou
have what it takes to solve this
mysterious case, The future of the
entire world is at stake!
- Sherry Freedline
Who Framed Roger
Rabbit?
Buena Vista Software
Available from SSI
Welcome to the world of Toontown
where you'll experience the thrill of
life as a Toon in Buena Vista
Software's rendition of Who Framed
Roger Rabbit?
Judge Doom has framed Roger
for the murder of Marvin, owner of
Toontown, In his missing will,
Marvin has left Toontown to the
Toons. Toontown’s existence is
threatened by Judge Doom’s special
chemical known as “The Dip” which
dissolves a toon on contact! The
Judge and Roger race through
‘Toontown insearch of Marvin's will.
In order to save Toontown, Roger
must find the will firstand defeat the
sinister Judge Doom.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?actually
consists of three games; Benny the
33
IM\ULINUW/ OE
GAMES
WU VATS
Cab, The Ink and Paint Club, and
the Gag Factory. Each part must be
completed in order to move on to
the next one. In Benny the Cab you
must steer Roger through the streets
of Hollywood as he races to the Ink
and Paint Club to search for the will.
This is no leisurely Sunday drive
through the countryside as Roger
must avoid randomly placed
puddles of The Dip and collisions
with Red Cars,
Survive the streets of Hollywood
and Roger willarrive at theinfamous
Ink and Paint Club. Marvin's will
has been hidden somewhere in the
nightclub among the receipts,
napkins, and checks scattered on
each of the tables. Roger must gather
all the papers and avoid the drinks
as he races around each of the tables.
It only takes one small sip to stop
Roger dead in his tracks.
After Roger's nightclub excursion
he'll arrive at the Gag Factory. Here
he must gather gags to use against
the factory's weasels. The gags
provoke the weasels into laughing
themselves to death. Once Roger
conquers the weasels he'll meet up
with Judge Doom, Defeat the Judge
and Toontown will be saved!
The premise of Who Framed Roger
Rabbit makes for a great game. The
graphics and sound effects are
excellent! However, my desire to play
the game came to a screeching halt
once I realized that after losing the
game | could not continue playing
without re-loading the gameall over
again from the very start! This might
not beso bad ifit didn’t take quite so
long to load the game, but the
loading process is over five minutes.
Ifyou can tolerate this, lifeas a Toon
is indeed full of fun and laughs!
- Sherry Freedline
%)
COMMODORE WORLD
ACTION
REPLAY
Datel’s Swiss Army Cartridge
Action Replay v5.2; $59.95; Datel
Electronics, Ltd.; Distributed in North
America by Creative Micro Designs,
Inc., P.O. Box 646, East Longmeadow
MA 01028, 1-800-638-3263.
The folks at Datel Electronics
Limited realize that game playing is
indeed a serious business. Like a
knight in shining armor, Datel
comes to the rescue of frustrated
Commodore game players with the
Action Replay cartridge.
My favorite type of game is one
consisting of a myriad of successive
levels containing rewards of unique
new graphics and music. Of course
the game shouldalso be challenging.
These gamesleave me witha burning
desire to experience all of their many
levels. Unfortunately, my gaming
abilities rarely agree with my
ambitions and I tend to end up
COMMODORE WORLD
frustrated. Now, thanks to the
assistance of my little red Action
Replay cartridge, there's hope!!!
Upon opening the Action Replay
package my first thought was, this
looks cool. lenjoy gadgets, and that’s
exactly what the Action Replay
cartridge resembles. As I stated
above it’s contained in a red plastic
cartridge, but the addition of two
red buttons protruding from its rear
right throws it into my “gadget”
category. The inner button is called
the Freeze button, and the outer one
is the Reset button.
The Reset button provides its user
with access to the Startup Menu.
The Freeze button is used to
interrupt normal operation of the
computer and to display the Freeze
Menu.
First of all, to use the cartridge, it
must be inserted into the
Commodore's expansion port.
Pressing 3 resets the computer,
making the cartridge seemingly
invisible to the computer. The
Startup Menu disappears and the
normal cold start Commodore
screen appears from which you can
then load your favorite program.
Startup Menu
‘There are a few items on the Startup
Menu you may wish to use. First is
the Configure Memory option. This
option is used in conjunction with
yet another great Action Replay
feature - its backup utility. You'll
need to activate this option prior to
performing any backups with Action
Replay. This option will fill the
computer's memory with a single
byte value to make the Action
Replay’s Backup Compaction
System more efficient.
Secondly, you'll surely make use
of the utilities listed under F5. Here
you can find the utilities needed to
formata disk, copy a file, or copy an
entire disk. It's great to have all these
utilities only a keypress or two away.
Last, but not least, F7 installs
Action Replay’s fastloader. This is
really handy ifyoudon'talready own
CMDs Jiffy DOS. Life will never be
the same once you've used a
fastloader. The fastloader can load a
200 block program in approximately
9 seconds. However, | tried the
fastloader out on a few of my
commercial games and experienced
some incompatibility problems.
You'll find this to bea very common
34
problem among all of the popular
fastloader programs.
Freeze Menu
The Freeze Menu may be activated
at any time by a quick press of the
Freeze Button. This is where you'll
find a host of nifty utilities hiding
out just waiting to be called into
action. Included are utilities
designed specifically to ease some of
your gaming frustrations, along with
other extremely useful graphic and
programming utilities. Due to the
gaming nature of this review, I will
only briefly explain those utilities
not directly related to gaming
though they are just as powerful, if
not more so,
Poke Finder
As an avid game player, | am
addicted to Action Replay’s Poke
Finder utility, so much so that the
cartridge has found a permanent
home in my expansion port. With
many games, once you've lost your
last life you must re-start the game
from the beginning. This is
frustration to the max! Now there's
a way to end this aggravation by
using the Poke Finder to locate the
right code to poke into memory,
providing you with infinite lives. |
figured this would probably require
some long drawn out process;
surprisingly, it’s very easy to use!
First of all, with the cartridge
installed, load your game. Once
game play has begun, note the
number of lives remaining, then
Issue 8
quickly press the Freeze Button. The
game play will be interrupted and
the Freeze Menu will appear. Press
the X key toactivate the Poke Finder.
After a short pause, one of several
possible messages will appear. The
most desired message displays one
ormore pokesandinformsyouthese
pokes have been installed. Another
message may request you to
continue game play, lose one life,
and return to the Poke Finder. This
does not point to a failure, it simply
means the computer needs to dig
just a bit deeper. I've had successful
results after receiving both of the
above messages. The third message,
of course, will state the Poke Finder
utility has aborted due to its failure
to locate the poke.
If the Poke Finder is successful, it
not only lists the pokes on the screen
for you, but it also installs them so
you may continue on with your
game. Press F3 to continue game
play, exactly where you left off! It
can’t get much easier than this.
According to the manual, Action
Replay's Poke Finder has a success
rate of 80% and claims to be more
successful with older games.
Pokes & Parameters
Sometimes Commodore magazines
will publish “Cheat Pokes &
Parameters” to provide game players
with infinite lives, a stopped timer,
and disabled sprite collisions. These
tricks can be entered through the
Freeze Menu’s Poke and Parameters
options. Both of these options are
very easy to use. Though they are
very simple, they open a whole new
world as far as game playing is
concerned.
Sprite Killer
The Sprite Killer utility is used to
disable collisions between two
sprites, between sprites and
background data, or both. You can
then return to game play and (if
successful) bumping into that evil
monster sprite will no longer result
in the loss of a life! | found that the
Sprite Killer utility wasn’t quite as
successful as the Poke Finder. This is
due to the fact that what may appear
Volume 2, Number 3
to be a sprite may actually be user
defined characters or programmed
using coordinate information versus
the VIC system. When this is true,
the Sprite Killer will have no effect
onthegame. The Sprite Killerismore
successful with older Commodore
games.
Graphic Utilities
Several handy graphic utilities are
also available from the same Freeze
Menu. Youmay have wondered how
magazines are able to grab screen
shots directly from all those great
games. Action Replay provides one
such means for grabbing screen
shots although, it can only save
Multicolor Hikes screens. Once the
desired screen/picture in your
program appears, freeze the screen
with the Freeze Button. Once the
menu appears, F7 can be used to
view the frozen screen and the S key
allows the same screen to be saved to
disk. Pictures can be saved in the
following formats: Blazing Paddles,
Koala, Advanced Art Studio, Artist
64, Vidcom 64, and Image System.
If the format you prefer is not listed
above, I'd recommend saving it as a
Koala file. There are many Koala
conversion utilities available on
BBS'sand Online services. One thing
to keep in mind when saving any
graphics from commercial programs
is that these graphics should be
treated the same as any other
copyrighted program. They should
be kept only for your personal use
and enjoyment.
Frozen screens can also be
dumped tothe printer with the Print
Dump option. This options works
with any graphics mode, but the best
overall results will be obtained from
multicolor bitmap modes. The
Printer Dump is unable to print any
sprites contained in the frozen
picture. Colors are represented as
shades of grey.
Disk Utilities
Action Replay contains a backup
utility that should only be used for
personal backup copies of
commercial software. Like the rest
of its utilities it is also very easy to
use. First, from the Startup Menu,
selectthe Configure Memory option,
Once the program to be backed up is
running, press the Freeze Button and
Action Replay’s compactor will then
gointoaction, then the program will
beready to besaved to disk. Backups
can be loaded from disk without the
use of the Action Replay cartridge
by adding a special “loader” to the
same disk. Complete and thorough
directions are contained in Action
Replay’s manual.
The Freeze Menu also allows a
directory of your current disk to be
viewed without disturbing the
contents of your computer's
memory. This is great for those
games that require more than one
sitting to complete. It allows you to
break out of your program, load up
a directory, and then return to your
program where you left off.
contents of memory (screen, stack,
and zero page) to be scrutinized. Of
course the memory will resemble
that ofthe program at the time it was
frozen with the Freeze Button.
Changes may then be made and will
be included when the program is
restarted or saved. If you plan on
using the Machine Code Monitor
you should be thoroughly familiar
with the 6502 assembly language.
Action Replay’s manual contains a
summary and a description of the
commands which can be used with
the ML Monitor.
In Conclusion...
The Action Replay Cartridge is
available from Creative Micro
Designs for $59.95. Is it worth it?
Well, when you consider the fact
that a Machine Language Monitor
alone sells for approximately $20,
“£.S AN AVID GAME PLAYER, I Am
ADDICTED TO ACTION REPLAY’S
POKE FINDER UTILITY...”
Programming Utilities
Of course Action Replay wouldn't
be complete without a couple of
utilities to satisfy the programmer.
Botha Sprite Monitoranda Machine
Code Monitorare available from the
Freeze Menu.
The Sprite Monitor allows any
sprites in memory to be displayed
onthe screen. Seven sprites ata time
may be viewed. The Sprite Monitor
contains options which allow access
to any of the computer's 4 video
banks, displays of sprites in either
Standard or Multicolor modes, saves
of the current sprite to disk, loading
of any previously saved sprites into
the current sprite position, and the
removal of the current sprite which
makes it invisible. After doing all
this, you may even return to the
program. For all you programmers
out there, the uses of this utility are
almost endless.
The Machine Code Monitor is
available from either the Freeze
Menu or from Fastload. While in a
game or any program, the extended
Machine Code Monitor allows the
35
and a Backup/Compression
Program such as Mad Man's Ckit
retails for $39.95 along with the fact
that the Action Replay cartridge
contains both of these valuable
utilities plus more... it’s a great
investment! Right now, due to
differences in U.S. copyright laws,
Creative Micro Designs is able to
provide the full-featured version
(5.2). Because the current version
overseas is actually version 6 but
doesn't haveas many features, CMD
adds a bonus disk from Datel
containing additional graphic and
demo utilities making this an even
better deal!
I may not be a programmer but
everyday itseemslike my computing
knowledge increases, along with my
needs for more powerful utilities.
All of Action Replay’s utilities are
very easy to use and I know it will be
a long time before | manage to
outgrow them. And the best thing
is... they are all contained in one
place... a little red cartridge!
- Sherry Freedline
+)
COMMODORE WORLD
Graphic Interpretation
by Steue Vander Ark
BEEN TO ANY GOOD SHOWS. LATELY?
A couple of weeks ago in Lansing, Michigan, |
attended a Commodore computer expo put on
bya bunch of really nice folks in the Lansing Area
Commodore Club. It was great! Now, I wasn’t
around for those “World Of Commodore” shows
they used to have, which were big exciting mega-
shows andall, somaybe | don’t know whata good
show is “supposed” to be like. But I'll tell you, in
Lansing I walked around a room piled with every
variety of Commodore hardware | had ever heard
of, (and some I hadn't—did you know that
Commodore made an IBM-compatible laptop?)
and hada ball. | sure wished that I hada whole lot
of money to spend, too, because I saw games for
sale there that I have always dreamed of owning
but which are nov, sadly, out of print. I did buy
onegame, though, agreatrole-playing game called
“Wasteland” which I've always wanted.
As I cruised the room, a couple of things really
struck me. The most obvious is that Commodore
computing is pretty much becoming GEOS
computing. Anything that’s new and anywhere
close to the cutting edge is happening in the
GEOS environment. I'll tell you some specifies in
amoment. Another thing I noticed was that there
are still plenty of really fanatic Commodore users
around. There were peopleat this show with truly
amazing conglomerations of computer hardware
constructed around 64’s and 128s. These people
have the computer smarts to work with any
platform out there, but choose the Commodore
8-bit machines as outlets for their engineering
and computing talents. A Mac jockey running
QuickTime movies and CD-ROM multimedia
might not understand this, but | do. Those
Commodore machines might not be the fastest
computers in the world, and they certainly can’t
match the sixteen-million colors you get with
COMMODORE WORLD
today’s top-of-the-line computers, but darn it,
ey get under your skin. And they're
understandable.
If you aren't sure what I mean by
understandable, think about this. When |
program the Commodore 64 (and thatisn'toften),
Ican honestly do pretty much whatever I want to
with it. I can create graphics, sprites, sounds, and
so on from scratch. I can trick the screen into
displaying more than eight sprites at a time. I can
program for thejoystick so my sprites move where
Iwantthem to go. Icanevensplashalittlemachine
language routine into the middle if] want to, just
to spice things up. The reason I can do all these
things isn’t because I am a master programmer.
I'mnot, believe me. It’s because doing those things
on a Commodore is not really all that hard to
understand. Theinnerworkings are complicated,
certainly, and archaic, true, but they make sense
to me. | learned a lot of things from articles in
computer magazines. | learned more from
messing around with it. The point is, | learned.
The Commodore is a hobbyist’s machine; with
36
only a modest investment of time, anyone can
learn how it works. Really. Even me.
What's really exciting is that I can do all this
stuff in GEOS too. No, I am not a machine
language programmer. But there's a
programming language for the rest of us called
geoBASIC which lets even guys like me write neat
GEOS programs. Soon I'll spend some time
tinkering around with geoBASIC and let you tag
along, so if you want to be ready to learn along
with me then, you might want to buy a copy of
geoBASIC. Creative Micro Designs carries it;
check elsewhere in this magazine for their ad.
But that will be next issue, or maybe the one
after that. This time around, let me tell you what
wonders and marvels I saw for GEOS there in
Lansing. When I said that it is in GEOS that the
cutting edge things are happening, I am talking
mostly about the work of Maurice Randall, whose
columns also appear in this magazine. Maurice,
for those of you who don’t know already, is the
person who created geoSHELL, a command line
interface for running GEOS. Maurice is also
working ona new 80-column desktop publishing
program for GEOS. But somewhere along the
way, he has also found time to create what I
believeis the first fax program for the Commodore
computer.
Athis table therein Lansing, humming withall
kinds of Commodore equipment, was a fax
machine hooked up by phone line toa 128. In the
back of the computer was a SwiftLink cartridge,
which I am told is necessary to handle the faster
baud rate the fax program requires, And on the
screen was one of the nicest-looking GEOS
programs I have ever seen. | suppose thata really
slick screen image isn’t really as important as
whether the program works or not, but it sure
Issue 8
“CCOMMODORE COMPUTING IS PRETTY MUCH
BECOMING GEOS COMPUTING. ANYTHING
THAT’S NEW AND ANYWHERE CLOSE TO THE
CUTTING EDGE IS HAPPENING IN THE GEOS
ENVIRONMENT.”
doesn't hurt to sport a nice modern graphic
interface. The geoFax screen is beautifully done
and the program is all the more elegant because
of that. And of course, the program does work,
and very nicely too. Maurice was sending faxes all
afternoon.
Maurice wasn’t the only person showing GEOS
on the cutting edge. One of the featured guests
was Dale Sidebottom, who has spent the last
couple of years learning the ins and outs of laser
printing. Dale is really an expert at it, and he gave
avery informative talk about using a laser printer
with the Commodore. During his seminar, Dale
printed out a set of name labels from geoWrite,
along the way giving a lot of useful tips. He also
demonstrated a program which drives a laser
printer for a non-GEOS ASCII text file on the
Commodore. Never having seen a laser printer
run from GEOS before, I found the whole thing
fascinating. Who knows, maybe I'll actually buy
a laser printer one of these days to replace my
trusty 24-pin Epson.
Things like quick and easy laser printing and
faxing straight from GEOS are exciting to see. |
got a real sense that the full power of the
Commodore and particularly of the GEOS
operating system has not yet been reached. But
since I don't own a SwiftLink, a fax modem, or a
laser printer, they are things which don’t directly
help me out.
I picked up a disk, however, which I can get
someimmediate use from. It’sa disk ofshareware
programs written by a fellow named Spike
Dethman. This collection of files is a must for
GEOS users; you can finditon GEnie (file number
15772). That fileis an archive of eighteen separate
programs along with their documentation.
Included is the current version of geoPack, which
isan excellent utility for converting files between
GEOS and Commodore format. Also in this
collectionsareanumber of GEOS 64 input drivers,
including a set of them for joystick port two and
anew version of the drivers for the Koala Pad.
These new Koala Pad drivers are exciting for
anyone who has had a hankering to use their
graphics tablet as a pointing device. The input
driver which comes with GEOS 64 leaves much to
Volume 2, Number 3
be desired. Spike's versions (there are four
altogether) really work a lot better by changing
the way that the tablet input is read. In the old
version, various locations on the Koala Pad surface
corresponded to specific locations on the screen.
That meant that if you touched the tablet, the
pointer would jump to the screen location
instantly. It was very difficult to find the exact
spots needed to operate things like drop-down
menus this way. The new versions instead tell the
pointer to scroll in the direction you are moving
on the tablet surface, making the Koala Pad
operate something like a trackball. Two of the
variations use the Koala Pad sideways, with the
buttons on the right; you can use your thumbnail
on the tablet surface and your fingers on the
buttons.
Those drivers are interesting, true, but the
most impressive new ideas in Spike Dethman’s
collection come in the program AKA. This
program creates an “alias” fora GEOS application
which, when double-clicked, starts the real one
up for you. Big deal, you say? It isa big deal when
you see what that alias will do for you. When you
create the alias in the first place, you are given a
number of options which you can set for that
program. For example, you can create an alias for
geoWrite which will always look for and run the
version of geoWriteon the fastest drive, regardless
of which drive you double-click the alias from. If
you have a copy of your application on a RAM
device, that is the copy that the alias will run. It
will also look to faster disk drives before slower
ones, You can also tell it to always save the data
files to RAM or always save to a real disk.
Essentially, AKA creates a small loader for your
application which is set to run that application as
efficiently as possible. The concepts involved are
a bit tricky, but there is a documentation file
included which is very thorough and easy to
understand.
GEOS artists and desktop publishers will
appreciate Paint Rotate and Click Pix, two more
interesting programs inthiscollection. With Paint
Rotate, you can rotate, mirror, or invert an entire
geoPaint image in one pass. This sure beats
scrolling, cutting, and pasting bits and pieces of
37
the page with that small geoPaint edit window.
The process takes a while, even ona RAM device,
but it's certainly faster than doing the job
manually. Click Pix creates a stand-alone
application from a geoPaint image which can be
viewed without having geoPaint available. You
can scroll through the image as well.
Even more exciting for the graphics enthusiast
is KoalaVert. As the name suggests, this utility
converts multi-color images into GEOS. The
graphics mode of GEOS is not compatible with
that ofa Koala file, so some processing is necessary
to create an acceptable image. What KoalaVert
does that makes it such a powerful tool is to let
yousubstitute patterns for colors. Okay, granted,
that’s been done before. But KoalaVert lets you
choose your color replacement patterns
individually, color by color. You can fine tune the
way the image will look by changing the patterns
or even by leaving colors out completely. This
program is easily the best of its kind.
By now you can see why I was so excited to find
this collection of utilities. Spike's programs
represent first class, state of the art GEOS. They
are exceptionally user friendly and include a lot
of extra options and capabilities. I haven't even
mentioned the other programs it includes:
geoCrypt, which encrypts individual data files to
keep them inaccessible to prying eyes; Envelope,
adesk accessory which makes it ridiculously easy
to print out envelopes; and RAMBoot, an
improved version of the Reboot program which
correctly handles your disk drives, even if you've
swapped their numbers around a few times. All
of these programs are very well designed and
written.
I left Lansing satisfied. There were still great
things happening in the GEOS universe. I had
glimpsed a few miracles still to come. I had found
acopy ofagamel’dalways wanted. And[had met
a lot of friendly, helpful people who share my
fondness for those wonderful Commodore 8-bit
machines and the GEOS system. If you have a
Commodore Users group in yourarea, I encourage
you to find out about getting involved. You'll
learn a lot and make some great friends.
+)
COMMODORE WORLD
PROGRAMIST
by, Maurice Randall
INPUT FILENAME BECOMES SELECT FILENAME...
In Issue 7 we learned how to create a basic file requester, but that one would
only work with a single drive system. It had no provisions for selecting
anything but the currently active drive. Let's stick some icons in there now
and give the user the full use of his system.
Before we get too far here, let's make sure thatwe understand or remember
a few important points. There is a GEOS variable known as ‘curDrive’. By
examining the value contained there, we can tell which drive is currently
being used. If your program is going to be capable of doing any switching
between drives, itis important to read this value when your program is first
started. When your programis ready to exit, you should make sure that this
drive is once again the active drive so that the user will exit back to the same
drive that was used to start your program, Chances are that the Desktop, or
an alternative, is on that drive or is on the sister drive. Remember that
GEOS will look to drives A or B for the Desktop, unless the active drive is C
or D, in which case it will look to those two drives for the Desktop, The only
time when restoring the original drive would not be necessary would be if
your program is intended to exit to a different drive.
So, in the first stages of your program, save curDrive to one of your own
variables such as with the following:
MoveB curDrive,loadDrive ;make a note of the current drive.
loadDrive:
-block 1
Then, when ready to exit to the Desktop, use the following code:
Ida loadDrive
jsr SetDevice
jmp EnterDesktop
;get the drive we were loaded from.
;make it the current device.
sand exit.
Your program will promptly return control to the GEOS Kernal, which in
turn will open the disk and search for the Desktop. There was no error
checking in that routine. We could have checked the x register for a
non-zero value after the call to SetDevice, but chances are good that the
drive is still there. Ifyou make your program capable ofadding or removing
drives, then the error checking should be included,
Since we're creating a file requester to be included in our program,
chances are good that the user will be opening the different drives that are
on the system. Restoring the original drive is important, or you might leave
the user outin the cold when GEOS tries to find the Desktop on drive C. The
COMMODORE WORLD
38
only solution then is to reboot. Needless to say, your program might not get
used a second time.
Drive Those Icons In
Let’s now add the drive icons and an OPEN icon to the file requester that we
created in Issue 7. The first thing that must be done is to draw some icons
using geoPaint. We'll draw some simple icons here, but there's no reason
why you couldn’t make these more elaborate. Draw 8 separate icons and
make them each 16 pixels high and 16 pixels wide. Why 8 icons? We need
4 ‘off icons and 4 ‘on’ icons. Start by drawing the officons and then copy
and invert them to create the on icons. When the user sees the four icons in
the file requester, there will be one that is always highlighted, or ‘on’, to
indicate the active drive and the rest will be ‘off but will let the user know
which drives are available. If you want, just draw some simple framed
rectangles with a letter in the middle of each one.
| ee > eee ee © ee
CORRECTION S
Some errors crept into the program listing titled Example 1 that
appearedin Issue 7’s installment of GEOPROGRAMIST. Several
of the labels used in the example program contained a dollar sign
($) where an underscore (_)should have appeared. There was
also a right curly-bracket (}) where a vertical bar (|) should have
been. Furthermore, some of the text of the column itself also
reflected these errors when referencing the affected labels. The
following is a corrected version of the example program.
Example 1
OBTable:
-byte DEF_DB_POS | 1
-byte CANCEL
-byte DBI_H_2
-byte DBI_Y_2
-byte DBGETFILES
-byte 4
-byte 4
-byte @
Issue 8
With that done, let’s get them into the source code. Copy each icon into
aphotoalbum and then open up geoWrite and transfer them to your source
code. When you paste them into your source, put a label just before each
photo scrap. You are going to tell geoAssembler where to find each icon. I
might want to mention one of those little “things to remember” here. When
you paste ina photo scrap like this, make sure there is at least one blank line
beforeand after the scrap. Thisis one of those little glitches in geoAssembler,
Dialog Box Source Code Listing
;this is the main DB routine that can be
;called from within an application, It will
;return with rOl holding a value of #0PEN
;if the user selected a file and r5 will
;also point to the selected filename.
Name your labels appropriately, such as OnAlcon, OffAlcon, OnBlcon,
etc.
Let’s look atthe source code accompanying this article. You'll notice that
the table for our dialogue box has increased in size because we've added
another system icon. This is the OPEN icon. The dialogue box will be used
toopena file for use with your program, so this icon should be appropriate.
Alternatively, you could use the OK icon instead—it’s up to you.
A little farther down in the dialogue box table, you'll see four more new
entries. These identify four ‘user’ icons. These are icons that you can define
for your own purpose. In our case, these will be our drive icons. When
GEOS draws the dialogue box, it will look at these entries in the table and
act accordingly. Let’s look at one of the entries.
-byte DBUSRICON
-byte DBI_K_2
.byte DBI_Y_8+28
-.word ADriveTable
The first byte identifies the entry as a user icon. The next byte is the
horizontal location within the dialogue box to place this icon, followed by
the vertical location. These locations are offsets from the upper left corner
of the dialogue box, remember. GEOS constants are used in this example,
but you could substitute any value that you should desire if you wanted to
rearrange the looks of the DB. The last two bytes form a pointer to another
table, This table will tell GEOS what to do with the icon. Let's take a look at
one of those tables.
ADriveTable:
.word OffAlcon
-byte 6,8
-byte 2,16
.word IconfDrive
First is the label. The next two bytes you should recognize. They point to
one of your photo scraps. Then we have two zero bytes. Normally these
would be the horizontal and vertical locations of the icons, but they have
already been defined, so the value here is meaningless. The next two bytes
indicate the width in bytes followed by the height in pixels of the icon,
Now let's look at the routine that sets up the dialogue box itself. In our
example, we are calling this routine SelectFile. This could be called from
anywhere within your program to have the user select a file from one of the
drives. The routine first sets up the pointers to the icons according to the
drives that are online so that the user may correctly select the desired drive.
If you study the comments in the source code, you will easily understand
what is taking place. It runs through a loop to set pointers either to the ‘off
or the ‘on’ icons or a zero pointer if the drive is not being used at all.
Now, when GEOS draws the dialogue box and looks at these four tables
that are pointed at, it will also draw the icons that are pointed at, thatis, ‘if
any icons are pointed at. This is how we can tell GEOS not to draw an icon.
After all, we wouldn’t want an icon representing a drive that wasn't there.
(text continues on page 41)
Volume 2, Number 3 39
SelectFile:
5$
LoadB nameBuffer,#8
Idx #8
10$
Ida iconLTable-8,x%
sta r@L
Ida iconHTable-8,x
sta r6H
Ida driveType-8,x
beq 38$
cpx curDrive
bne 28$
Ida onLTable-8,x
stariL
Ida onHTable-8,x
starlH
bra 48$
28$
Ida offLTable-8,
stariL
ida offHTable-8,x
staril
bra 48$
30$
LoadW r1,#0
40$
Idy #8
Ida riL
sta (r8),y
iny
Ida rll
sta (r8),y
ink
cpx #12
bne 10$
LoadB r7L,#7
LoadW r5,#nameBuffer
LoadW r16,#8
LoadW r8,#DBTable
jsr DoDIgBox
Ida r@L
cmp #28
beq 5$
cmp #0PEN
beq 80$
cmp #CANCEL
bne 5$
88$
rts
;begin with no filename.
;setup r@ to point to
;an icon table
jis this drive in use?
;branch if not.
jis it the current drive?
sbranch if not.
jload rl with a pointer
3to an ‘on’ icon.
jload rl with a pointer
;to an ‘off’ icon.
jload ri to point to nothing,
sand place the pointer
;where it belongs.
jhave we done 8-11 yet?
;branch until so.
jlist application data files.
;point to a buffer for the filename.
jlist all data files.
;point to the main DB table.
;and give the job to GEOS.
;did the user click on
3a drive icon?
;branch if so to restart.
show about the OPEN icon?
;branch if so.
show about the CANCEL icon?
jbranchif not. What else was there?
;the calling routine can now
yalso check r@L and r5 still
;spoints at nameBuffer.
COMMODORE WORLD
-.word COrivetable
nameBuffer:
-block 17 -byte DBUSRICON
-byte DBI_H_2+3
-byte DBI_Y_6+48
.word DDrivetable
;these tables merely aid in setting up the
;pointers for the dialog box. -byte 6
iconLTable:
-byte [ADriveTable,[BDriveTable ;these are tables that are pointed at by the
-byte [CDriveTable,[DDriveTable juser icons from the main DB table. The first
iconHTable: ;-word value in these tables gets changed when
-byte JADriveTable,]BDriveTable ;the DB routine is called.
-byte ]CDriveTable,]0DriveTable
onLTable: ADriveTable:
-byte [OnAlcon,[OnBicon -word OffAlcon
-byte [OnCicon,[OnDicon -byte 6,8
onHTable: -byte 2,16
-byte JOnAlcon,JOnBicon -word IconfDrive
-byte ]OnCicon,JOnDicon
offLTable: BDriveTable:
-byte [OffAicon,[OffBicon -word OffBicon
-byte [OffCicon,[OffDlcon -byte 8,8
offlTable: -byte 2,16
-byte JOffAicon,JOffBicon -word IconBDrive
-byte JOffCicon,JOffDicon
CDriveTable:
-word OffCicon
-byte 6,8
;this is the main dialogue box table. -byte 2,16
-word IconCDrive
DBTable:
-byte DEF_DB_POS | 1 DDriveTable:
-word OffDicon
-byte OPEN -byte 6,8
-byte DBI_H_2 -byte 2,16
-byte DBI_¥_8 -word IconDDrive
-byte CANCEL
-byte DBI_H_2 ;these are the routines that are called
-byte DBI_Y¥_2 ;when the user clicks on one of the
;drive icons.
-byte DBGETFILES
-byte 4 IconfDrive:
-byte 4 Ida #8
-byte $2c
-byte DBUSRICON
-byte DBI_H_2
-byte DBI_Y_8+28
-word ADriveTable
-byte DBUSRICON
-byte DBI_H_2+3
-byte DBI_¥Y_0+28
-word BOriveTable
-byte DBUSRICON
.byte DBI_H_2
.byte DBI_Y_8+48
COMMODORE WORLD
40
IconBDrive:
Ida #9
-byte $2c
IconCDrive:
Ida #18
-byte $2c
IconDDrive:
Ida #11
jsr SetDevice
jsr OpenDisk
LoadB sysDBData,#28
jmp RstrFrmDialog
Issue 8
Ifthe drive isn’t available, make the first two bytes in the table equal to zero
and GEOS will ignore it.
;these are the photo scraps that are to be Now that the dialogue box is ready for GEOS to draw, the GEOS routine
jused for the drive icons. See the body of DoDialogBox will take it from here. GEOS is now in control until the user
ithe article for instructions on how to clicks on an icon. Ifeither the OPEN or CANCEL icons are clicked on, GEOS
een e tear cone: will close the dialogue box and restore the screen. If one of the drive icons
are clicked on, the appropriate routine as listed in one of the fouricon tables
will be called. And as you can see in the listing, they each end up going into
the same routine in our case. All we are interested in here is to know which
icon was clicked on and to open that particular drive. For instance, if drive
Aisclicked on, the routine leconADrive is called and drive A will be opened.
At the end of the routine, the GEOS routine RstrFromDialog gets called to
exit the dialogue box. If the routine ended with an rts, it would return
OffAlcon: control to the dialogue box. In our case, we want to exit the DB and then
restart it so that GEOS will redraw the drive icons showing the new drive
selection and also to bring up a new directory listing.
So, when control returns from the dialogue box, in SelectFile, the value
in rOL is checked. If it contains either #OPEN or #CANCEL, we know that
one of the system icons was clicked on and we will end the routine. In our
OnBicon: example, this is the only way that SelectFile will end. Either the user selects
a file or cancels the request. The routine that calls SelectFile can also check
the value at r0L since it is not being altered yet and act accordingly. If one
of the drive icons was clicked on, r0L will contain a#20 instead because this
is what was loaded into sysDBData when the routine leonADrive was
called. We couldactually use any value greater than 10 here. RstrFromDialog
OffBicon: will transfer the value from sysDBData into r0L when closing the DB. You
will also notice that lconADrive opened the desired disk for us. No error
checking is done on the disk since none is needed. If there is no disk in the
drive, the user will simply see an empty file listing and will likely select a
different drive.
Whenever your program needs to have the user select a file from one of
Onflcon:
2] BS
OnCicon: the drives, you merely check r0L to see ifit contains 7OPEN, Ifso, then you
should have a valid filename pointed at by r5, Ifsomething went wrong in
the selection, r5 might point toa zero byte. Treat this the same as if the user
clicked on CANCEL since a valid filename has not been selected yet.
iz)
Ready For The Test
Type in the source from the listing here and create a dummy application to
ettclean:; test it out. The following routine will do just nicely:
Dummyfpplication:
MoveB curDrive,loadDrive
jsr SelectFile
Ida loadDrive
jsr SetDevice
jmp EnterDesktop
OnDicon:
loadDrive:
-block 1
=)
OffDicon: If everything went OK, you can click on your new application from the
Desktop and you will be presented with a dialogue box and a list of files.
You now have a good starting point for a file requester. By now, you
should have figured out that you could expand on thisand include additional
features such as the name of the disk that is in the current drive, or possibly
another DB that would pop up when an error occurs. If you make the DB
larger, you could add a few more icons to control other functions.
E
%)
Volume 2, Number 3 41 COMMODORE WORLD
BASIC
INS TINCT
by Gene Barher
SCREEN 1/0 TECHNIQUES: PART 2
In this installment of BASIC Instincts we'll use Commodore BASIC v2 to
create two new user interface subroutines, First we'll create a Lightbar
subroutine which makes navigating menus easier. Then we'll create a
Custom Cursor subroutine which gives us precise control of the cursor
(unlike the cursor we used in Part 1). With these new subroutines we'll be
able to make our BASIC programs even more user friendly. Let’s get to
work!
Lightbar
What ifyou had alist of options such as: enter data, clear data, retrieve data,
or quit program? How in BASIC would you ask the user? Using some of the
skills we learned from Part I, we might code it like:
iV2O
110
115
120
1:25 = a
130 IF X$="C" THEN clear the data
135 IF X$="R" THEN retrieve the data
140 IF XS<>"Q" THEN 120
With the above code, the user must type the first letter of the option in order
tomove on, Ifthe program got a character it did not recognize, it would go
grab another one. Wouldn't it be neat if we could print the list of options,
highlight the first option, let the user move the highlight up or down the list
with the cursor keys, and have the return key select the highlighted option?
This way the user would only have to use the cursor and return keys
navigate through our menus. Hence, making our program easier to use.
This method of menu navigation is known as a Lightbar system.
The heart of our Lightbar subroutine lies with the following code:
X1=40* (XR+XD-1) +XC+55296
FO
NEXT
In the first line we calculate X1. X1 is the memory location which contains
the color of the first character of the highlighted option. XR (row) and XC
(column) point to the upper left hand corner of the Lightbar menu. XD
(option) is the currently highlighted option; where the first option equals
one, the second two, the third three, and so on. So the actual row number
COMMODORE WORLD
42
EEE!
equals (XR+XD-1). Since screen memory is organized as one big row of
columns, we multiply the number of rows (XR+XD-1) by forty (the number
of columns per row) and add XC to get the exact position of the highlighted
option. Then we add 55,296 which is the start of the Color Memory Map.
If we wanted to point to the character value instead of its color, we would
add 1,024 which points to the start of Screen Memory Map. The Color and
Screen Memory Maps can be found in your Commodore manual. The FOR
loop POKE’s the highlight color to the Color Memory Map and highlights
the current option. XW is the width of the menu in characters. For more
information, review the Lightbar example in the listing. Remember to use
Screen Color Codes for XT (text color) and XH (highlight color).
Screen Color Codes
BLACK 0 ORANGE 8
WHITE 1 BROWN 9
RED 2 L. RED 10
CYAN 3 D.GRAY 11
PURPLE 4 M.GRAY 12
GREEN 5 L.GREEN 13
BLUE 6 L.BLUE 14
YELLOW 7 L.GRAY 15
Custom Cursor
There are times when BASIC’s cursor just won't do, For example in the
Input String subroutine from Part I, have you ever noticed how the cursor
occasionally leaves a reverse space after it’s turned off? While this doesn’t
hurt anything, it does look strange and may distract the user. To solve this
irregularity we could use a Custom Cursor.
To create a Custom Cursor we use the same technique as above for
manipulating memory directly. Except this time, we use the Screen Memory
Map; the map which contains the value ofeach character on the screen, You
will notice that the calculation of X1 is almost the same. The only major
difference is that we add 1,024 (instead of 55,296) to our location calculation
which is the start of the Screen Memory Map. There is one more trick we
use. Examine the following code.
l
S
i
C
In the first line, we set X2 equal to the value of the original character located
at X1 (which we calculated earlier). In the next two lines we reverse the
Issue 8
character by adding 128 to X2, being careful to keep the values between 0
and 255. And finally, we POKE the reverse character value X2 to the Screen
Memory Map. By doing this we have reversed the character at X1. The
Custom Cursor routine uses this method for flashing the cursor. Please
review the example included in this issue’s program listing.
The Subroutines
The type-in program includes the two following subroutines:
ENABLE LIGHTBAR (SUB) - Controls user interaction with a
Lightbar menu
SHOW CUSTOM CURSOR (SUB) - Displays a Custom Cursor until user
types a key
At the top of the program is a sample call for each subroutine. The
subroutines are written for readability, not speed. You will find that they
are well documented and easy to read. Youare free to use these subroutines
in your own programs (commercial included),
Notes
As you type in this issue's program, take it one section ata time. Try to get
a general idea of what the section is trying to accomplish. See if you can
follow how the section is using its variables. If you see an unfamiliar BASIC
statement, take a quick look at it in your BASIC manual. If you are still
confused, move on to the next section; often times the next section helps
explain the previous one. Above all, don’t forget to BACKUP your work
frequently.
Entering The Program
Before entering this issue’s program, load and run the CHK-LIST utility
(located elsewhere in this issue). CHK-LIST insures that you enter the
program correctly the first time. Also, remember to SAVE the program
before you attempt to RUN it. It never hurts to be safe.
$)
INPUT2.BAS
100: REM<<=<5-=<65 sssenessr-e ernst e=
105 REM COMMODORE WORLD MAGAZINE
110 REM BASIC INSTINCTS W/GENE BARKER
115 REM SCREEN I/O TECHNIQUES PART II
12@ REM
125 REM (C)1995 CREATIVE MICRO DESIGNS
130) REM- -<--s<93 3m cere rrr t
135 REM-
14@ REM ENABLE LIGHTBAR (SUB) EXAMPLE
145 REM-
148 POKE 53280,11:POKE 53281,@
15@ PRINT" {CLEAR/HOME}{CRSR DN}{CRSR RT}
{WHT}LIGHTBAR EXAMPLE"
152 PRINT" {CRSR DN){CRSR RT}{RVS ON) ENTE
R DATA{5 SPACES}"
154 PRINT"{CRSR RT}{RVS ON}CLEAR DATA{5
SPACES} "
156 PRINT" {CRSR
{2 SPACES}"
158 PRINT" {CRSR RT} {RVS ON}QUIT
3 SPACES)"
162 PRINT" {CRSR DN}{CRSR RT}SELECT OPTIO
N USING THE CURSOR KEYS,"
164 PRINT" {CRSR RT}THEN PRESS
166 PRINT"{CRSR DN} {CRSR RT) ({
RT} {RVS ON})RETRIEVE DATA
PROGRAM {
ETURN] "
CK ARROW
[R
BA
Volume 2, Number 3
43
INPUT2.BAS (cont.)
}) TO
20@ XR
202 GOSUB 1@690
204 PRINT" {CRSR DN} {(
OPTION: "XO
REM
CRSR RT}YOU SELECTED
REM CUSTOM
REM-
PRINT
PRINT" {CMDR A}{1® SHFT
T *}{CMDR S}
2 PRINT" {SHFT
SHFT -} {SHFT —}
CURSOR (SUB) EXAMPLE
*}{CMDR R} {SH
-} (CYAN) ABCDEFGHIJ (WHT } {
CUSTOM CURSOR EXAMPLE"
324 PRINT" {SHFT -} {LGRN}KLMNOPORST {WHT} {
CMDR Q}{SHFT *}{CMDR X)}"
326 PRINT" {SHFT -}{YEL)UZWXYZ1234 (WHT
\e
PRINT" {CMDR Z}{1® SHFT *}{CMDR X}"
PRINT" {CRSR DN} {CRSR RT}USE CURSOR K
> TO SELECT CHARACTER"
PRINT" ({CRSR RT) PRESS
[RETURN] TO HIG
PRINT" (CRSR RT} ({BACK ARROW}) TO ABO
XR=16:XC=1:XB=15
P= (XR*4@) +XC+11+1024
POKE P, PEEK( (XR*4@0) +XC+1024)
GOSUB 10900
IF XX$<>"{CRSR RT)"
XC=XC+1
[IF XC>1@ THEN XC=1
GOTO 338
XX$<>"{CRSR
XR=XR+1
IF XR>18 THEN XR=16
GOTO 338
* RXS<>" {CRSR Ly"
XC=XC-1
XC<1
GOTO 338
IF XX$<>"{CRSR
XR=XR-1
IF XR<16
GOTO 338
IF XX$<>CHR$ (13)
H=X3+128
If H>255
THEN 350
DN}"
366
THEN
IF THEN XC=10
UP}" THEN 374
THEN 384
THEN H=H-256
E X1,H
GOTO 338
IF XX$<>"{BACK ARROW)"THEN 340
PRINT" {CRSR DN}{CRSR RT}END OF EXA
MPLES."
388 END
10600
1065
10610
19615
19620
10622
10625
1@627
1063@
10635
10640
10645
10650
10655
10660
19665
1067®@
1@675
ENABLE
REM
REM
REM
REM XR
REM
REM
REM
REM
REM
REM XN #
REM XT
REM Xt}
REM
REM
REM
REM
LIGHTBAR (SUB)
GIVEN
CURSOR
(@-24)
CURSOR COLUMN POSITION
(@-39)
WIDTH OF EACH MENU
IN CH'S
OF ITEMS IN
ROW POSITION
[TEM
MONIT
mmINU
MS IN THE
TEXT COLOR OF MENU
HIGHLIGHT COLOR OF MENU
DEFAULT ITEM SELECTION
(1 TO XL)
RETURNS ITEM
xO - SELECTED
COMMODORE WORLD
INPUT2.BAS (cont.)
20F7
9F68
43D9
8495
3COD
686A
27AA
E53D
8173
5A71
2E9C
27TAA
7F34
AF5@
4AC96
C306
CFO6
COE4
5@A5
9114
2AAE
86C3
79D9
TA38
25FA
5OOF
DA6B
3E57
9860
744F
553E
F506
5E@2
19955
LWYa5
10960
REM
REM NOTE: * XO<@ THEN NO ITEM
HIGHLIGHT
CURRENT SELECTI
9, THEN 10762
(BACK ARROW}" THEN 1077
)-1
* XD<1 THEN XD=XN
GOTC 10700
POSITION
Always SAVE your work before trying to RUN it.
COMMODORE WORLD
E X P A N OD
YOUR SYSTEM
3 SLOT CARTRIDGE PORT EXPANDERS
The EX2+1 and EX3 Cartridge Port Expanders bring new
expandability to you Commodore 64 or 128. Combine the
use of compatible cartridges. Disable cartridges notin use.
Change the address your computer finds a cartridge at.
Avoid the constant changing of cartridges that puts extra
wear on your cartridge port. The EX3 offers 3 vertical
expansion slots, while the EX2+1 provides 2 vertical slots
and 1 horizontal slot. Both units offer 7 switchable signals
per slot, address mapping on slot 2, and a reset button.
CALL 1-800-633-3263
Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East Longmeadow MA 01028
Refurbished Units & Repair Service !
C-64 Refurb. with P/S (No books or TV cable) $ 59,95
C-64 Refurb. without P/S (No books or TV cable) 49.95
1541 Refurb. with cord & ser cable (No book or disks) 69.95
Monitor Cable, 5-pin DIN to RCA jacks 5.95
Serial Cable, 6-pin DIN, 6’ 9.95
Serial Cable, 6-pin DIN, 10’ 11.95
Commodore Power Supply for C-64 (used) 10.00
Power Cord for 1541 4.95
Power Supply for 1541-II 32.50
Ribbons: 1525 12.45
MPS 801 7.95
MPS 802 / 1526 7.95
MPS 803 6.95
MPS 1230 18.95
Service: We will repair or replace:
C-64 (notincluding P/S) $ 40.00
1541 $ 50.00
Send computer or disk drive with name,
address, phone #, & describe problem.
Repair or replacement is shipped UPS,
(Please remove any non-Commodore upgrades)
Commodore Repairs
Since 1979
xr *e
90 Day Warranty
on all repairs
and refurbished items.
TO ORDER: Send check or money order for the total of your order
plus $8.00 shipping (Personal checks take 2 weoks to clear). For
COD orders, add $5.00. We currently do not accept credit cards.
We reserve the right to refuse service items which have been
stuffed with bad parts or are otherwise unrepairable.
Unique Services (413) 496-9275
68 Velma Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201
All items subject to availability. Prices subject to change without notice.
Issue 8
How to Type In Program Listings Appearing in
Commodore World
While Commodore World currently doesn’t make it a habit of publishing
type-in programs, a number of our columns do require entering sample
routines. For this purpose, we have created our CHK-LIST utility for the
Commodore 64 and 128. This utility uses a 16-bit CRC checksum method
to verify that you have correctly entered each program line, and that each
of the characters in the program lines are in the correct order.
You'll notice that program listings appear with a column of values to the
left of the program lines. These values are the CHK-LIST values and are not
to be entered as part of the program. A similar set of values are generated
by the CHK-LIST utility to allow you to verify that everything has been
entered correctly.
Enter the CHK-LIST program from BASIC. You can use either a C-64 or
aC-128 computer. Ifyou use a C-128, it can be in either 64 or 128 mode. Be
sure to enter each line carefully to avoid mistakes—until you actually have
CHK-LIST working, finding errors in program entry won't be easy. After
you have finished entering the program, be sure to SAVE a copy to disk
before you attempt to RUN it, just in case. Ifyou aren’t familiar with how to
save a program to disk, you can use the following command:
SAVE”CHK-LIST",8
10 F=ABS (PEEK (65533) =255) :M=49152: IFFTHE
NM=4864
C=@: PRINT" {CLR/HOME}WORKING";
READD: IFD=-256THEN4®
C=C+D: IFD<@ANDF=@THEN20
IFD<@THEND=0-D:M=M-1
POKEM, D:M=M+1:PRINT"."; :GOTO2®
PRINT: READCK: IFC<>CKTHENPRINT" ERROR I
N DATA STATEMENTS! ":END
5@ PRINT"“DONE.":END
60 :
49152 DATA
pissye252
DATA
165,43,-45,133,251,165,44,-46
169,@0,141,36,193,-20,169,147,
DATA 210,255,32,194,192,-19,160,0,
DATA 37,193, -20,177,251,133,253;,20
238,37,193,-20,200,177,251,13
208, 3: 238i-37),193,,-20),173,3.7.1
49200 DATA
49208 DATA
9,-142,169
49216 DATA
255
49224
49232
1,32
49240
132
49248 DATA 213,192,-19,76,90,192,-19
7191;,192),:-19
49256 DATA 32,167,192, -19,173,,190,192,-1
9325167
201,2,208,1,96,200,177,251
170, 200,177,251,32,205, -50,18
6,133,211,-236,169,61, 32,210,
DATA
DATA
169 ,,:32'),.32,210, 255 ,160,/2.177
251,32 5:213), 1924-19200; 1775.25
DATA 213,192,-19,200,177,251,240,6
Volume 2, Number 3
45
Touse CHK-LIST, loadit into your computer and type RUN. Make sure that
any program you are currently working on is saved first, or start CHK-LIST
before you begin typing in a new program. After you have CHK-LIST in
memory andrunning, type NEW. You may now either load or begin typing
the program you wish to have CHK-LIST check on. Whenever you want to
check your program, type in the appropriate SYS command given below:
C-64 or C-128 in 64 mode:
C-128 in 128 mode:
SYS49152
SYS4864
Note that when typing in listings, some special characters will appear in
braces. For example, {CLR/HOME} means that you should enter the Clear
key, which is done by holding down the SHIFT key while you press the
HOME key. Other times you may see a number ahead of the key name, such
as {3 SPACES} or (5 CRSR L}. This means you should press the key indicated
the number of times shown. Most special keys are easy to identify, since the
text shown will generally match the text on the key. Exceptions are the space
bar {SPACE}, and cursor keys which include directions ({CRSR UP}, {CRSR
DN}, ({CRSR L} and {CRSR RT}). Be sure to use the correct key combinations
for color keys, such as <CTRL><2> for (WHT}.
49288
DATA
49320 DATA
9,104
49328 DATA 32 30, 192 i 5,170
4
49392
PPOs: 5
49400
DATA
192,
DATA
16.13.80.
6,13,80,82,
-
Q
A 60,82,69,84,85
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COMMODORE WORLD
by Mark Follows & Doug Cotton
DISCLAIMER: Information in this column is
presented for education purposes only. In no
event will Commodore World orCreative Micro
Designs, Inc. be liable for any direct, indirect
or consequential damages resulting from the
use or misuse of this information.
Since CMD’s RAMLink was designed to allow
either a Commodore REU or a GEORAM to be
installed in the RAM Port, and because these two
devices use different I/O pages, it was necessary
to disable those I/O pages on the Pass-Thru port
whenever DIRECT access to the RAM Port was
selected to ensure against memory conflicts.
Unfortuneately, this means that you can’t use a
Harp Tips
SwiftLinkin the Pass-Thru port while maintaining
direct access to an REU in the RAM Port.
The modifications in the pictures below show
how you can maintain operation of the $DExx
I/O space on the Pass-Thru port while using a
Commodore REU in the RAM Port in DIRECT
mode. Inlay terms, that means you can download
to your REU directly while using a SwiftLink and
RAMLink together. The ‘down side’ is that your
RAMLink will no longer be compatible with a
GEORAM, BBGRam, or RAMDrive.
To perform the modifications, you'll need a
soldering iron, some solder, a utility knife, wire
strippers, andsome hookup w ire (preferably solid
wire-wrap type).
Since there are two versions of RAMLink, two
sets ofinstructionsare given. The revision number
RAMIFICATIONS: RAMLINK PASS-THROUGH
PORT MODIFICATION
on the bottom of RAMLink determines the
version; revisions beginning witha “2” are version
2. You'll have to disassemble your RAMLink and
remove the main circuit board, since the
modifications are done on the back of that board
in the lower left quarter. Simply make the trace
cuts shown in Detail 1, then install the jumper
wires shown in Detail 1 and 2, Now reassemble
your RAMLink. The DIRECT switch will no longer
disable a SwiftLink (set for the factory default),
Ifyoudon’thave the necessary skills to perform
the modifications, CMD can supply a simple
replacement chip (P/N: RLDIRECT) that does
the same trick for $15.00 plus shipping. This chip
will only work if your RAMLink is a version 2, or
Revision I (version 1).
1. Cut these two traces,
then
2. Attach the two jumper
wires,
Detail 2
aaaaane
eet Detail-4
90999 -
weg 80999 5
1, Cut these two traces,
then
2. Attach the two jumper
wires.
COMMODORE WORLD
Seay Detail 2
RAMLink Version 2 Modifications
Issue 8
Peripheral Vision
By fim Butterfield
D>
THE DIRECT APPROACH TO RELATIVE FILES
We're about to explore the wonderful world of
relative files. They are marvelous, in that they
allow you to go directly to any part of the file and
read or write there. They are dangerous, in that
they need to be handled with extreme care, or
they will not work and may damage other files on
your disk.
How They Work.
Conventional files—PRG (program), SEQ
(sequential), and USR (user) types—are all set up
in the same way (see figure 1). The disk directory
tells you where the first block of the file can be
found. From then on, each block in the file
“chains” tothe next one. That’s an efficient way to
organize a file. But ifyou wanted to look at data
in, say, block 10, the only way to get there is to
wade through the first nine blocks. And when
you're handling data in this type of file, the only
way you can change the file is to copy the whole
thing over to a new file.
Relative files—type REL—have a different
setup (see figure 2). The directory also points at
“side sectors”, which act as an index to the data
blocks of a file.
When we create a relative file, we define how
large each record will be. You don’t have to use all
the space that is allocated for a record, but you
cannot go over the allotted size.
The disk drive does a fair amount ofarithmetic
when you ask it to “position” toa selected record.
For example: supposea file has been created with
arecord length of 30 characters, and you ask the
disk drive to position to record number 99. First,
the drive calculates how many characters from
Volume 2, Number 3
the start of the file it must go: thus, 98 times 30
gives 2940 bytes. There's no record number zero,
so the drive subtracts 1 from the 99 before
multiplying. Next, the drive knows that there are
254 bytes of data within each block, so it divides
2940 by 254, giving 11 (full blocks) with a
remainder of 146 (bytes within the block). The
drive now consults the side sector table to find
thetrackandsectorlocation of block 12; itfetches
that block and then goes to the 146th byte past
the header. Now it’s ready to read or write.
It’s even more complex than that. Sometimes a
record fallsacross two different data blocks. That's
called a “spanning” record, and the disk drive
knows how to deal with that, too. Butdon’'tlet me
scare you off. The drive takes care of the details.
Let’s Write Relative!
Format a fresh disk. We're about to create a
relative file. Ifyou don’t have a Commodore 128,
47
be sure that your computer has a “wedge”
program in place. We'll need to ask the disk what
it’s doing several times during this exercise, and
the 64 needs a wedge to do this.
I'mgoingtolayout someimportantrulesabout
relative files. You'll see these as we proceed. And
if you have a 128, I'll give you alternative
commands that you may use.
Creating The File.
We will create a relative file called TEST. It will
have a record length of 25 characters, which is
(ahem!) relatively small. We will do all this with
direct commands, although you could put the
same commands within a program.
To create a relative file, we must follow these
steps: open the file; move toa “minimum” record
number; write something; and finally, close the
file. There will seem to be errors as we go through
this operation, but they are expected and we'll
discuss them.
RULE 1
THE FIRST TIME A RELATIVE FILE IS USED, IT
MUST BE MADE BIG ENOUGH TO USE MORE
THAN ONE DATA BLOCK.
Why? Because the side sector won't be created
properly unless we have a minimum of two data
blocks. So let’s do some arithmetic. We must
have more than 254 characters of data (that’s the
size of a data block); with a record size of 25, this
means that we must create a minimum of 11
records in order to make sure the file is created
properly. We'll go for an even dozen.
COMMODORE WORLD
Directory
Data file blocks
“Conventional” files are arranged so that each data block links to the
next one. The directory locates the first block in the chain.
Unless you're going to do the whole operation in Basic 7.0 (on the 128),
start by opening the command channel with:
c 8) i:
15,8,15
OPEN
Open the relative file with this command:
OPEN)! Ly By:2)"'0%
(128 alternative: DOPEN#
This command selects logical file number 1 for the file, drive 8, and
secondary address 2. Note the secondary address—we will be using it
again, The maximum size of a record is 254.
When you press RETURN, the disk light will turn on and stay on. That's
normal when you have a file in progress. Now we will instruct the drive to
position us at record number 12. It will complain, of course, since at the
moment there is no such record.
PRINT#15,"P*” ) +CHRS$ (12) +CHRS
(128 alternative: RECORD#1, 12)
+CHRS (2
You'll get a flashing light on the drive; we'll deal with that in a moment.
First, let's talk about the above command. We're not sending data to be
stored, so this command flows over the command channel. The command
is P, and we follow it with the secondary address of the file (NOT the logical
file number!). The next two bytes give the desired record number as low
Directory
byte/high byte. When your record number goes over 255 the value must be
split into two bytes: divide by 256, and the low byte (the first one) is the
remainder, with the high byte value as the quotient. Finally, that CHRS(1)
stuck on the end: that’s the “position within the record”. NEVER use any
value other than one here.
Now, about that flashing light. Ask for the disk status with the wedge
command (usually just the ‘@' character). You'll see that the problem is
error number 50: record not present. We expect that: there is no record 12
until we make one. So let's do that.
PRINT#1,CHRS$ (255);
We are writing a special character into record 12, As we do so, all the
missing records, 1 to 11, will be created.
RULE 2
ANY TIME YOU WRITE A NON-EXISTENT RECORD, YOU WILL CREATE IT
TOGETHER WITH ANY LOWER-NUMBERED NON-EXISTENT RECORDS.
That's a handy rule. Any time you want to make a relative file bigger, just
move to the highest desired record and write something.
RULE 3
EMPTY RECORDS CONTAIN A VALUE OF CHRS(255)
So now the file contains at least 12 empty records; that’s more than one
Data file blocks
Relative files have the same data block setup as
conventional files. But there’s also one or more “Side
Sectors” that act as an index, allowing programs to go
to a specific part of the file.
COMMODORE WORLD
48
Figure. 2
Issue 8
block of data and it would be save to close it. But let’s fool around with the
various records a little, first. We'll write a few items in various places.
PRINT#15,"P"”+CHRS (2) +CHRS (7) +CHRS (0) +CHRS (1)
(128 alternative: RECORD#1, 7
PRINT#1
1m.
aa 7
, “LUCKY
”“P”4+CHRS (2) +CHRS
(128 alternative: RECORD#1, 2)
PRINT#1, "DOUBLE";
PRINT#1,”OR NOTHING!”
PRINT#15, 2) +CHRS (0) +CHRS (1)
Sometimes I end a PRINT line with a semicolon—which means we don’t
puta RETURN behind the data we write—and sometimes I don't. In fact,
it doesn’t matter much: later, we'll find that INPUTS will collect the record
with or without the RETURN.
The last item brings out an interesting point. When writing sequential
files, ending a PRINT# with a semicolon will allow us to continue the data
with the next PRINT#. Not so with relative files. In the example above,
DOUBLE will be written to record 2, and OR NOTHING! will be written to
record 3.
RULE 4
ONE PRINT# WILL WRITE EXACTLY ONE RELATIVE FILE RECORD—
NO MORE, NO LESS.
But we can put multiple pieces of data within a record if we wish. Try the
following.
PRINT#15,”P”+CHRS (2) +CHRS (9) +CHRS (0) +CHRS (1)
(128 alternative: RECORD#1, 9)
PRINT#1, “HOT” +CHRS$ (13)+"DOG!";
Rule 4 says we will write exactly one record, number 9, with the above
command, The record will contain two items (fields), separated by a
RETURN character. We'llneed two INPUT# commands to read them both.
Wrap It Up
We should close this file sometime soon. But feel free to play around first.
You might try writing more records, or even writing over earlier data. Try
going a little beyond record 12: you might be surprised to find that we have
created slightly more than the twelve records requested. Try expanding the
file to a larger size: remember that the trick is to position to a larger record
number (say, 30), and then writing something there.
And you're allowed to try breaking some of the rules. Our test file has a
maximum record size of 25 characters. If you tried, for example, to write a
30-character string into record number 10, would the data slop over into
record 11? (The answer is NO, but you will get an error message).
When you're finished, close the file with CLOSE 1, and the data will be
safely wrapped up.
Checking it Out
There are more rules to learn; we'll pick up on them next time. In the
meantime, you'd probably like to look at the file you have created,
Here's a program that will show you what's in the file. Ifyou look at it
carefully, you will even detect some of the rules that will be introduced next
time around, One caution, though: before you write your world-beating
relative file program, wait for the next installment: there are a few pitfalls
I'd like to warn you about. af)
Volume 2, Number 3 49
ChAD
Simple Relative File Viewer
Program Listing
100 OPEN 15,8,15
110 OPEN 1,8,2, TEST”
120 R=1
130
CHR$ (1)
140 INPUT#15,E,E$
150 IF E>0 GOTO 300
160 M=0
170 J=0
180 INPUT#1,X$
190 IF ST=0 THEN M=1
200 PRINT
220
230 NPs XS
240 IF ST=0 GOTO 180
250 R=R+1
260 GOTO 130
300 CLOSE 1
310 PRINT
320 CLOSE 15
¢ Uses Standard Cable
sie with a female DB-25
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Allows connection of printer and
other user port pepe such
as modems without conflicts.
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Shipping: US $5.00, Canada $7.00,
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“RECORD” ;R;
210 IF M=1 THEN J=J+1:PRINT
IF XS=CHRS (255) TH
“RECORD” ;R;”
The Most Advanced Parallel Print Cable Ever!
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
PRINT#15, ”P"+CHRS (2) +CHRS (R) +CHRS (0) +
“PIELD";J;
EN XS=" <EMPTY> “”
>>STATUS:”;ES
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Parallel Print Cable
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Parallel printing offers up to a
40% increase in output speed.
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Includes GEOS drivers plus
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GEOS CONVERT.
GeoCabie Il is compatible with GEOS, Perfect
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Superscript, Paperctip iil, and all software that
Supports user port parallel printing.
Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
Orders: 800-638-3263
Info: 413-525-0023
COMMODORE WORLD
Carrier Detect
By Gaelyne Moranec
>
| CAN SEE YOUR HOME PAGE FROM HERE...
What do Elvis, the IRS, Monty Python and
Commodore computing have in common? The
Internet. Yes, Elvis is on the Internet—not in
person, mind you, (well I've not run into him
anyway) but there is a place where you can find
out information about Graceland tours and such.
No, this isn’t going to be yet another boring
Internet article you might have read in other
magazines. Thisis going to be something you can
enjoy and learn from, even if the topic at first
glance might seem that way.
Mention the Internet to some people and they
run in the other direction; they think of it as a
complex monster of data with weird features and
words that seem to make no sense at all. And
some really don’t, even when you find out what
they mean (come back here—I'm just getting to
the good stuff).
The key to the Internet is not what the
terminology “means” or stands for; the key is to
find out what each feature does and how you can
use it. Knowing that FTP stands for File Transfer
Protocol doesn’t mean much, but if you think of
it as a quick easy means of grabbing files to
download it doesn’t seem as daunting. Other
Internet features are much the same way. Once
you know what you can do with them and how, it
really isn’t that much different from other
methods of communication, and it’s faster,
There are two Internet features that I've found
to be very satisfying to use, incredibly EASY, and
best ofall, FUN. A year or so ago, | wouldn't have
dreamed of calling anything having to do with
the Internet FUN, but I do so now without
COMMODORE WORLD
hesitation. Both features have things in common
so I'll describe them together.
First lets cover what you'll need to access them.
You'll need your computer, of course, and you'll
also need a modem and a term program which
offers ASCII (sometimes called “Standard”)
emulation. ANSI and/or VT-100 emulation can
also be used, and in some cases is preferred,
You'll need a method of accessing the Internet
such as through an online service, some of the
larger Bulletin Board Systems, an account witha
university, or through some of the various
freenets. You should be familiar with the service
that you use, so you can find your way to the
Internet services and go from there.
Once you access the Internet from your service
things change a bit, both in the commands you'll
use, and in the types of things you can access. So
be prepared—it’s very much like opening the
door to a whole new world.
50
A Menu is a Menu is... a Gopher?
You say you like things easy? Don't like messing
with weird commands that make no sense at all?
Then Gophering is for you. Gophering is simply
ameans of movingthrough the Internet via simple
menu choices, much like when you calla regular
BBS and move to the files area to download files,
or when you use a menu program that lists
different programs to load and run. When you
use Gopher on the Internet, you move through
different menu options until you reach something
that interests you, such asa file to download, ora
text file to read. You can also back-track through
the previous menus and make other choices.
Gophers begin by offering you a wide range of
categories, which depending on your choices,
narrow to specific items. When you load a menu
program on your computer, it already has the
information within the program on where tofind
the each program listed as well as how the file
should be loaded. Internet Gophers operate in
the same manner. Gopher menus are set up in
advance by whoever it is that creates gopher
menus, (presumably the place where the gopher
itself is located), and have the commands built
into them for each selection offered. Some of the
commands can move you through cyberspace
and take you from one location to another
transparently and without any intervention on
your part.
Ok, soa Gopher is a menu that moves you through the
Internet, But what practical use is it?
Good question. Recently while writing an
Issue 8
article, | wanted to mention a specific author and
acouple ofthe books he’s written. Unfortunately,
I don’t own any of the books from one of his two
different series, and I felt I should include both
series instead ofjust one. Where to start? I started
with the books I have, but they were older and
didn’t mention the second series. A comment in
one book mentioned that the author attended
Cambridge University. It was 3 AM so naturally
calling my local library to find out what I needed
was out of the question. Gee, too bad there aren't
all-night libraries like there are convenience
stores, | thought. AHA! A light bulb went off in
my head—the Internet is open any time of the
dayornight. I dialedin, found the Internet Gopher
area and moved through a series of menu choices
to Cambridge University, where looked through
it’s library catalogues for the author's name.
Within just a few minutes I found my answer.
(For the curious, it was Douglas Adams’ Dirk
Gently series), Other times I've used Gophers to
check the weather in Australia just for grins, and
have used it to find programs to download just as
easily as if I'd called a BBS.
The *Personal* Touch
While reading mail in various usenet newsgroups
recently, I've noticed thatin the past few months,
the number of times I’ve read comments about
World Wide Web, WWW, or have seen what
appear to bea different form of EMail addressing
have been appearing everywhere, it seems. The
“addresses” look like:
http://www.msen.com/~brain
Gee, I'll have to check into these things one of
these days, Isaid to myselfand continued reading.
A few days later, a fellow Commodore user told
me he had his own “Home Page” and I should
check it out. “What's a Home Page?”, I asked. A
Home Page is a lot like using a Gopher but it’s
more fun and can be more direct. In some cases
you might use a Gopher to begin your journey on
the World Wide Web, but once you start, things
change a bit. For instance, if you've been using
plain ASCII terminal emulation to move around,
once you start accessing World Wide Web (also
called WWW or W3), you may want to switch to
either ANSI or VT-100 emulation. It’s a lot
prettier,
But what's WWW and what's a Home Page got to do
with it?
If you've ever watched a TV news broadcast
discussing the Internet chances are you've seen
someone with a computer monitor showing both
text and pictures on the screen at the same time.
Volume 2, Number 3
This is what a WWW page looks like to most PC
or MAC users. Commodore users won't see the
picture but will see the word [IMAGE] in brackets
instead. The text will have numbers within
brackets near “key” words, or sometimes the
[IMAGE] will have a number in brackets next to
it. If you select a number it takes you to another
area or gives you further information on the
subject. Ifyou select anumber that happens to be
next to an [IMAGE] or a program filename, you
can download the program or image. Ifthe image
isa GIF file, you can view it with a GIF viewer (see
the sidebar for filenames) once you're off-line.
A Home Page is a Web page that is set up by
eitheran individual ora business. Imagine having
a text file that anyone in the world can read, plus
having the ability to “link” or send people to
other places on the Internet that you find of
interest or value. Add in the ability to display
graphics and/or have programs available to
download and you can see why the use of World
Wide Web has grown exponentially in the last
few months. Businesses in particular have a lot to
gain from this type of format. In a very broad
sense, it's a form of advertising in which the
consumer comes to the advertising source for
information about a company or one of its
products, as opposed to television commercials
which are aimed at a broad range of different
people. WWW isn’t just for business use, many
Universities have found it to fill a range of needs
and individuals who feel they have something to
share with the world can also set up their own
home pages.
Getting More Detailed...
Sounds great, but what does this have to do with the
weird addresses like: http://www.msen.com/~brain?
Theseare called URLs, ,whichisan abbreviation
for “Uniform Resource Locators”. H/77P stands
for “HyperText Transmission Protocol” which is
a type of text file that supports protocols to link
other documents or other locations to the text
you see. The text after the two slashes in a URL is
typically the address of the computer where the
data or the service is located, and further slashes
after this can specify the port to connect to, or the
names of specific files.
Does the Web have a Beginning Point?
There are a variety of ways to begin surfing the
Internet using World Wide Web. Easiestis to use
Gopher and select a menu choice for WWW.
Another option is to telnet toa WWW page. If
telnet is an option available to you, can also take
advantage of what's called a Lynx Web Browser.
There are also graphical-based forms of Web
Browsers, but they aren’t currently available for
51
Commodore users, as they require software on
your computer to allow youto use GUI (pointand
click style) interfaces.
Lynx (not to be confused with the Commodore
archiver ofthe same name) isa text based Browser
that uses ANSI or VT-100 terminal emulations. It
lets you see Web pages with more color and
controls cursor movements which in some cases,
is how information is selected when using this
style of Web Browser. Once you've found a
method to get on WWW, you can look at Web
(HTML) pages, look at Gopher pages, download
files (FTP), and read newsgroups (USENET).
Accessing WWW
So How Did I Start Using WWW? To begin
learning about World Wide Web, I started with
my Internet provider. I was a bit perplexed to
discover that WWW was not a choice | had
available. I knew | could find information about
the Web by using Gopher, sol selected this andin
the first gopher menu World Wide Web was
listed as an option. I breathed a sigh of reliefand
selected it.
Iwas then given several choices of WWW pages
to go to, along with an option to “access any
URL”. Atthe time! didn’t really know what a URL
was, but I had an “address” that I'd been given to
check out so I guessed this would be the one to
choose ifI had a specific place in mind and I was
right. I typed in the URL and.. I received an error
statement that the location] had chosen wasn’tin
service, Great, | thought.
I tried another URL I'd been given and this
time | had found myself looking at Jim Brain's
home page (see the sidebar). From here, I selected
differentnumbersand moved to other Web sites,
then moved back to Jim’s page again by following
options that were given at the bottom of the
screen. By sheer luck, Jim’s page includeda link to
the first URL that I had tried and had been
unsuccessful with. To verify that my first
experience wasn't due to my own errors, | tried it
and had the same message returned to me. Since
I'd been able to move to other locations from
Jim's home page, I was reassured that I had typed
the information in correctly, but for whatever
reasons this particular URL was unavailable. I
tried it a few days later and it worked just fine.
I needed more details about World Wide Web
for this article, and was able to use the web itself
to find the information I needed. There are a few
usenet newsgroups devoted to the subject of
WWW, and where there's a newsgroup, there's
often a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file to
download. In the same place where I found the
WWW FAQ file, | found a text file which has
much of the same information but in an easy to
COMMODORE WORLD
read style, called “Entering the World-Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace”
by Kevin Hughes. The file is a bit dated (1993), but it contains a great deal
of useful information and a history of how WWW came to be. I highly
recommend it.
Wrap Up
As I mentioned earlier, | haven't personally run into Elvis on the Internet,
but my use of the Internet has changed a great deal ever since discovering
World Wide Web. Would you believe the IRS has tax forms available in GIF
format that you can simply download, print, fill out and mail in? Not all of
the tax forms in this format are permissible to use when mailing in your tax
returns, and the accompanying text states as much, but several forms are.
Other places I found of interest to me included the web site for my travel
agent; a site which allows BBS Sysops space to advertise their bulletin
boards; and some off the wall places such as Spider's Web, which had links
toa variety of sites such as Monty Python songs and skits as text files. I've
included the URL's you'll need to visit some of these sites in the sidebar, as
well as many Commodore-related ones.
Jim Brain's Home Page viewed with a graphical Web Browser
Since the World Wide Web is relatively new, I won't chastise you if here by accident, Click
to go back to the Msen Home Page. 24 pet yes ee ¢ Ge
Meet Jim Brain:
vrais hrae Neca yiahha coe
You have reached I =
ante of ote nat Sl eed WAU Ws etn Sil eek Reb a hath inedatia a
my amateur attempt at this, a3 I am new to creating
If you are interested in a topic, please click on it You can choose from the following topics:
ef lel One
© Whats New with NCSA Mosaic and the Intrmet
@ intent Resontres Met-Index atNCSA.
For More Information:
To
Tequest more information or find out the status of ongoing projects, please send email to
Again thanks for stopping by, Come ‘round these parts again sometime and say hi’.
‘The document you are
tal information conned
ob mM herein are Copyright (C) 1994 by Brin
COMMODORE WORLD 52
There’s no telling what you can find on the Internet using the World
Wide Web and Gopher. Whether you're looking for information for a
report, looking for businesses which cater to your interests, or want to find
the latest Commodore file or information, it’s all there—in the web. Who
knows, you may even find Elvis!
$)
Jim Brain's Home Page viewed with a text-based Web Browser.
ME TO:
IT COMPU
TER HOME PAGE
ave included a
as well as
sure to glan
ET newsgroup o
from the USES
8, please check out
‘gs a tew tidbits of stuff at
llassen
r own pages,
Homepage has
nodore
some Commodore
Index has a bit about
Issue 8
GIF Viewers For Web Users
C64 mode: — VGIF.SFX by David Jansen
128 mode: — GDS.SFX by Eric Rafanan
GEOS mode: GEOGIF.SFX by Randy Weems (Coverts GIF files to
geoPaint format)
Browsers Accessible by Telnet
Telnet to: “telnet.w3.org”, log in as "www". Text or Full screen Lynx
browser, requiring VT-100 or ANSI.
Telnet to: “ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu”, log in as "www". Full screen Lynx
browser, requiring VT-100 or ANSI.
Web Pages to Check Out
Important Commodore Sites
http://www.msen.com/~brain/
US Commodore site maintained by Jim Brain
http://www.msen.com/~brain/guest/cmd/
Creative Micro Designs’ Home Page
http://monami.psc.edu/
The Pittsburgh Commodore Group site
http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/fms/comp
A Commodore files site
http://www.nada.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/
Commodore 64 Games Home Page
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~stuce
European Commodore site
http://kbt.com/bbs/bbslist.html
An interactive BBS Listing
http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~csbruce/index.html
Craig Bruce's home page
Other Interesting Sites
http://www.yahoo.com
The Yahoo Brothers Index (a quick way to find other locations)
http://www.anzac.com
Anzac Travel (I'll have a home page here)
http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/kids.htm|
Uncle Bob's Kids Page
http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/spider.htm|
Spider's Web (Fun variety)
http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/pick.htm!
Spider's Pick of the Day (Youcould end upjust about anywhere!)
MOVING‘?
Don’t forget to let Commodore World know.
Call or write with your change of address 6 to
8 weeks prior to your move so that you won't
miss a single issue!
Volume 2, Number 3
Creative Micro Designs’ Home Page viewed with a graphical Web Browser
Creative Micro Designs, Inc.
page ns
on
certie
Infos
1-413-525-0023
Par 1413-5250 47
‘Welcomie to the Creative Micro Designs Home Page, We manufacture and sell a wide variety of products
a? ubliher of Co tetas
for Commodore 64/128 users. We're also the p
mmodore World a r-based
tiodical for all levels of users, The links below will give you an opportunity fo fire out mere about
Online sample issue of Commodore World,
° (under construction)
° ari ae eaten
°
Browse Commodore World's Online Lasue
‘Then again if you'd rather fust leave...
Bal.
6526 PLA (906114), 6567,
all 901's, 8701, 8502, 6581
8562, 8500, 8563, 8564,
8721, 8722
251715, 251913, 390059... $14.95
251968-02 (1541ROM) $10,00
Power Supplies
C-64 non-repairable $12.95
C-64 repairable
C-64 Heavy Duty 5.2 amps $39.95
C-128 Heavy Duty
1750 5.2 amps
154111 external 110 volts .... $12.50
1581 external 110 volts $14.95
RAM Expanders
1700, C-128, 128K (*) $59.95
1750, C-64, 512K (*) $64.50
ean ia cote
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Sana4 a ae ”
C-64 computer w/ P.S. ....... $64.50
C-128 computer w/ PS. ..... $89.95
C-128D computer w/ K.B. $119.50
Miscellaneous
1351 Commodore Mouse .. $24.95
Computer Saver
(C-64 protection system) ... $14.95
Printer Port Adapter
(Any CBM Printer to PC) ... $34.95
C-64 Keyboard
C-128D Keyboard
1084S Monitor to C64 Cable $6.95
Floppy Disk Drives
1541 (*)
154111 (New in box)
Most service manuals are available.
Call for pricing and availability
Diagnostics
Commodore Diagnostician is a
complete guide to diagnosing and
fixing all C64/128 computers and
1541 drives. Uses a sophisticated
cross reference system. $6.95
(*) indicates refurbished unit « All Price Subject to Change without notice
P t 28 Grove Street, Spring Valley, NY 10977
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CORPORATION Hours; 9-5 pm EST * Add $5.00 UPS Charges * MC/Visa
fe
Ea
COMMODORE WORLD
Over The kdge
Recently, I picked up a computer club newsletter
and read a list written by a Commodore user,
putting us into neat categories from the Game
Players to Techno Gadget Geeks. It was fun
reading, but a quiet voice whispered in my ear,
“thisisn’tright...”. A few days later, while reading
echo mail, [found yet two morelists, the first with
types of BBS users, the second describing “typical”
BBS Sysops and their traits. Both lists were funny
and had truth to them, but each completely left
out the “good user” or“ good Sysop”, those people
who quietly help out, follow the posted rules and
make telecommunicating a pleasure for what |
hope are a majority of helpful and friendly users
and Sysops.
Everyoneseems to enjoy lists, whichis probably
why David Letterman’s ‘Top Ten’ lists are so
popular. In an age when “political correctness” is
the rage, | almost hesitate to voice my dislike of
being lumped into a category, even ifin humor,
mainly because | fear my dislike of the types of
lists I've seen recently itself smacks of “political
correctness”, ina way. My objection is there's no
way to neatly put any one person or computer
user into a category. Most of us fit into more than
one, some of us into several, My other objection
is that it limits our view of each other. When we
start narrowing our focus, it’s too easy to miss
seeing what makes usindividuals. This has always
been oneofmy objections to many of those things
that the ‘politically correct’ (hmm... there | go
categorizing...) fall into, where good intentions
at the onset get carried away by zealousness and
anarrowing of view, to the point of tunnel vision,
We all get just a bit twitchy when we hear “all
Commodore users are kids playing games”, or
“no one uses a Commodore for serious
computing”, We all know neither statement is
COMMODORE WORLD
By Gaclyne R. Moranec
DON'T BOX ME IN
true, yet when we start boxing ourselves into
categories, we're not doing ourselves any favors,
either. One of the reasons the Commodore is still
popular is the variety of things it can do, and the
way it manages to suit the needs and interests of
many users. If it only had one use, I'd not be
writing this, as the Commodore 64 would have
joined the ‘true’ orphan computers long ago.
Lest someone read this and get the idea I'm
saying “all lists are bad”, I'm not. In fact, this
precisely emphasizes my point! It’s the habit
people get into of limiting their focus that
concerns me. It makes as much sense as deciding
that paperisaharmfulsubstance because millions
of people suffer paper cuts each day.
Here's my list of things you can do to broaden
your computing horizon, in no particular order:
54
10.
=
12.
13.
Read more than one publication.
Try new and/or different programs.
Join, attend and participate in a User Group.
Write a program that does something that
you want it to do.
‘Try a new peripheral (new or used).
Solveaproblem. (Hardware, or software, etc.)
Ask someone else how they would... solve a
problem, write a program, use a peripheral...
Learn to use a modem.
Write a letter to magazine editors and tell
them your interests, likes and dislikes—and
don’t limit it to just the magazine, include
those things you like and don't like about
your computer, too,
Contemplate on how it is that 100 people can
have the same computer and the same
software, and yet each use it differently.
. Use your computer to enhance other interests
you have.
Help someone else learn how to use a
computer,
Day dream about what you would consider
YOUR ideal computer setup, be it hardware,
software, or both—and let your imagination
go wild, Don’t limit it to what's currently
available—after all, when the C64 first came
out, the 1541 disk drive wasn't even available
and now we have RAM devices, fastload
cartridges, JiffyDOS, hard drives and can use
28.8K modems....
. LEARN! Read books, browse old and new
magazines, ask questions.
. Share what you learn with others.
. And please... if you're gonna lump people
into categories, just call mine “Commodore
User, at large”.
«@)
Issue 8
UPGRADE YOUR COMMODORE!!!
Refurbished Hardware New Hardware THE FRIENOLY
Monitors Drives Other New APROTEK Accessories DISK MAGAZINE
1701 $169.95 1541/C $99.95 C64- $99.95 C24-2400 Baud (64/128) $118.95 FOR ALL YOUR
1702 $169.95 41 wiDips $11495 64C- $119.95 User Switch $44.95 COMMODORE
ni zaner 1541-1 $129.95 128- $179.95 Convert-A-Com $46.95 C it ¢ COMAOOOR C ut ¢ COMPUTING
1 09.95 1571 $169.95 1280 $329.95
1902 $229.95 1581 $179.95 Sx.64 $359.95 _, ew CMD/LMS Accessories CEE NEEOS
é 4 JitfyDOS C64/SX64 ‘System $69.95 — — a — — = =
1902A $259.95 MSD-2 $149.95 1660 $24.95 JittyOOS 128/128D ‘System’ $79.95 A << = =< =
ae ase ae Alaowee — eee 128 Kernal ‘$59 98 64 Karnal $49 95 NEWS «PROGRAMS
Mono's $49.95 1890 Deiat $39.95 Additional JiffyDOS Drive ROM $39.95 TIPS .UPGRADES
: Miscellane RAMLink Bs, $239.95 c/vOMB $289.95 fl 1 BOY rge445
2 jeous clw 1 MB $319.95 civ 4MB $449.95 - 1
Books$10-$15 Printer Interfaces $49.95+ Real Time Clock (Optional) Add $29.95 us SUCCESSOR TO CEE-64 ALIVE!
Prog's $5-S20 EpyxFastioad Cartridge $34.95 FD-2000 $249.95 FD-4000 $349.95 SACRAMENTO | 0582 COVERING ALL THE COMMODORE
Repairs SASK Super Snapshot v4 $49.95 NEW Super Snapshot v5.22 $89.95 | 8 BIT COMPUTERS.
Manuals $7 Super Grafix Jr. $199.95 1750 Supercione REU 512K $199.95
Ask For Anything! We May Have It! ARTICLES ANDO REVIEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
J.P. PBM Products By Mail Send CON Funds/15% USA Exchange
Box# 60515, N, Sheridan Mall P.O, 15 day Warranty On Refurbished Mdwr 6
Downsview, Ont. Canada M3L 1B0 Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery U 0 L i] H E 1 /1 g ql - $4 ISSUES
Tax-Canada + 7%GST, Ontario +8% PST 1995 Catalogue Disk (64 Format) — $2 ea 18 DISKS
Shipping-($0-S25=$4, $26-$99=10%, $100-$199=8%, $200-$499=7.5%, $500+=6%, USA=15%)
COMMODORE NETWORK »$#..
NORTH AMERICAN EDITION PRINTED IN THE
U.S. FROM MASTERS SENT FROM AUSTRALIA
VOLUME 471995... $48 "ois
AUSTAALIA’S #1 COMMODORE MAGAZINE FORHE
PAST 3 YEARS. DISKS WILL BE MAILED TWice
YEARLY OR MORE WHEN RECEIVED FROM AUSTRALIA.
DEMO ISSUES:COMMODORE CEE $3 COMMODORE NETWORK $4
CEE-64 ALIVE: vote 471992 $26 5 oisxs
VOLUME 271993 $25 é OISKS
VOLUME 371994 $36 14 o1sxs
OUR OWN SUPPORT BBS WITH OQUER 2,666 FILES FOR you
TO OOWNLOAD. CALL 1-916-395-9733 AT 368 BAUD To
TO 14,466 BAUD. SUBSCRIBERS HAVE ACCESS TO BOTH
INTERNET ANO FIOONET MESSAGE AREAS FOR THE 64/128.
QVER 156 NEW MESSAGES DAILY.
and Usseciates
(307) 742-3275
AUTHORIZED COMMODORE REPAIR CENTER
C128 Software!
Maidstone Quest
Master Paint
MASTERCARD AND VISA ACCEPTED
Shipping and C.O.D. Extra
1409 Mill Street Laramie, Wyoming 82070
The Phoenix Network #s.
“if
3 Rising Up From the Ashes ae ee
Providing Online Computer Entertainment and Services To The Nation
WHO WE ARE WHAT WE OFFER HOW TO JOIN
Kat Tate/Mystique - Dir. Online Operations | * $4.50/hour No monthly fee
Glen Doty/Phoenix1 - Chief Engineer (Non-Primetime rates 6pm-7am)
Al Mohring/Alinmin - Comptroller ¢ Visa & Mastercard Accepted
OUR GOAL * Separate Adult & Family Areas
To provide a place where ALL computer Positive Proof of age required IMPORTANT
userscanmeetinacongenialatmosphere, | * FREE Internet Access NOTICE
play games, share information, and gener- | * Shareware/Freeware Libraries for:
: Commodore, Amiga, PC, Mac .
sain oe POLICY * BEST Live Action Trivia Games Around There have been substantial
So long as we have a single user of ANY * Over 100 Special Interest Forum Areas changes to the way in which
type of computer online, we will provide | ° Ask about a a Forum Area for your Phoenix Network is accessed.
own group! Please call the following phone
that user with all the support and informa |, +e anEWARS 2002 Play the hottest new Asta
tion that we possibly can! number for complete details:
. BBS game. Fully Commodore compatible.
The Phoenix Network * Some of the Best & Brightest members of
P.O. Box 120093 Q-Link! Maybe even someone you know:
New Brighton, MN 55112 pe aoe aaa
: ellyM8 tar cor
612-537-5077 Voice MsOgeny _ She Elf Sir Fitz
Mystique Lt Worf JuliaJ
Plus many many more! Join us! Meet some
old friends and make new ones too!
612-537-5077
Volume 2, Number 3 55 COMMODORE WORLD
* CLASSIFIED ADS *
mini-magazine
sue sub ($2 for sample)
The Underground is a
users. Send $11 foraé6éi
the Underground, 4574
ia Santa Mari
C64/128 PUBLIC DOMAIN.
SEND $2 FOR A DEMO & CATALOG.
BOX l1é RAYTOWN, MO.
REQUEST FREE CATALOG
CALOKE IND., P.O.
hie 64133.
ACCEPTED.
C-64 FOREIGN-AMERICAN Utilities, Graphics,
Hacker, Arcade. 32¢ stamp gets catalog. Home-
Spun Software, POB 1064-CW,Estero,FL. 33928
WIN $$$ PLAYING THE LOTTERY! New software will
help. PROVEN SYSTEM! For details, send SASE t
LOTTOMAN, P.O. Box 44, New Millport, PA
or call 814-236-7615 and leave your name
address at the end of message.
GEOS Publication. One Year Subscription $6.00.
713 E. Main Street, Independance, KS.
ie Bey Sa NM yh 1
5/26. Montnily.
Cnad Service Center
AFFORDABLE ¢ FAST e DEPENDABLE
Call Today 1-800-638-3263
Our Team of Technicians are Among the Most
Qualified in the Industry!
Why Settle for Anything Less Than the Best!
We repair the following equipment: Commodore C-64, 64C, SX-64, C-128
and C128-D computers; 1541, 1541C, 1571 and 1581 Disk Drives plus
CMD Devices. JiffyDOS Installations a specialty. All repairs warranted for
30 days. Minimum charge $35.00 plus parts and return shipping. Contact
CMD for authorization before sending any equipment.
Creative Micro Designs, Inc. P.O. Box 646 E. Longmeadow, MA 01028
DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S
TOO LATE—
RENEW EARLY!
Is your Commodore World Subscription getting close to running out?
There's an easy way to check. Look at the mailing label on the front of
your copy. There you'll find your subscription number and the
expiration issue number. For example:
MI
Grand Rapids,
Jim’s subscription will run out with issue 8, as indicated by the EXP08
in his subscription code. Jim would be wise to re-subscribe early to
avoid missing a single issue of Commodore World!
COMMODORE WORLD
OR
VISA-M/CARD
67301-
56
ADVERTISERS
INDEX
Caloke Industries
Centsible Software
Commodore Cee
Commodore Country
Commodore World
Computer Bargain Store
Creative Micro Designs.... 5, 28, 29, 44, 46, 49, 56
Creative Pixels
Electric Boys
FGM Connection
Harvey & Associates
Home-Spun Software
Intercorp
J.P. Products by Mail
Kasara
Living Proof
Loadstar
Lottoman
Mad Man Software
Software Hut
Software Support Int. ............... Inside Front Cover
The Underground (Classified) 56
Unique Services
Yanney Software
MOVING’?
Don't forget to let Commodore World know.
Call or write with your change of address 6 to
8 weeks prior to your move so that you won't
miss a single issue!
Commodore World
Classified Advertising
Commodore World Subscribers may place non-commercial classified
advertising in Commodore World at a cost of $10.00 per issue. Your
advertisement may contain up to 150 characters (including spaces).
Sendyour advertisement with payment to: CW Classified Advertising,
c/o Creative Micro Designs, Inc., P.O. Box 646, East Longmeadow
MA 01028-0646.
Issue 8
fF gg 1 @ Just For Starters
@ Top Tips
ia
@ Carrier Detect
IN TOUC
1-800-638-32¢
10) SUNS CTIDE
Commodore World is the publication
that will keep you informed in these times
when up-to-date information on
Commodore computing is so hard to find.
Published by Creative Micro Designs, the
industry leader in development of
Commodore-related products for over six
years, Commodore World will supply you
with information on what's new, what's still
available, and above all else—where to
get it. If you felt you had nowhere to turn
to for Commodore support, turn to the
pages of Commodore World for a wealth
of resources ready to help you get the
most from your computer!
You'll find Commodore World feature
articles informative and easy to read;
what's more, they're written by leading
authorities and experts, many of whom
have written for other Commodore-related
publications in the past. And Commodore
World has something for everyone,
whether you're a novice or an experienced
programmer.
ri
~ fF ux sm 7 ie t JA
AGAZINE FOR COMMODORE 64 & 128 USER
333
And while our feature articles help to
cover different subjects in each issue,
regular columns provide on-going insight
into topics of interest to most users. You'll
find columns that cover BASIC and
advanced programming, and even a
column for GEOS programming. And if you
prefer being a GEOS user to being a
GEOS programmer, you'll find another
column devoted to helping you get more
out of GEOS. If you want to learn more
about using and programming the various
peripherals on your system—you guessed
it, we've got a column for that as well. Even
first-time Commodore users will find a
column devoted specifically to their needs.
And there's even more. Departments
that cover news, telecommunications,
reviews of available hardware and
software; even news of what's happening
in other Commodore-related publications!
So, if you really want to get the most
from your Commodore, there's no better
way to get it than Commodore World!
— oe gf ual /mwer i
Columns
dust For Starters - An introduction to the C64/
128 by Steve VanderArk
Foreign Exchange - An inside look at the market
in Europe by Joseph Gaudl
Graphic Interpretation - GEOS, GEOS and more
GEOS by Steve VanderArk
geoProgrammist - GEOS programming
techniques by Maurice Randall
BASIC Instincts - BASIC tutorials and type-in
programs by Gene Barker
Jim Butterfield's ML Column - Probably the best
known name in our industry, Jim covers every
aspect of programming in ML (coming soon)
Peripheral Vision - Technical insights to C-64/128
hardware peripherals
Carrier Detect - Exploring every facet of the
Telecommunications experience
Over The Edge - Editorial covering various
computer related topics and news
Departments
From The Editor * BackTalk * On The Horizon
Just Asking * The Connection * Top Tips
User Group Connection * Commodore Trivia
BBS Spotlight + Classified Ads
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abiyO gs oli Ku ne i Ire if
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i
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J52) or is7—
LIONS oF THE UNIVERSE
Things have been quiet in the Omacron sector for a suspiciously long time-until NOW! Lead the battle
against the hoards of marauding invaders in the corridors of death. Face the awesome Mega Guardians
who are all too eager to put an end to your pitiful existance. Whatever you do, strap on your seat-belt...
.. you're in for the battle of your life!
Goreed
ns Yiocs
‘ ais
us ki
er Gye. > Cran
sain Gani NE re enrenn eOrry eass
“Sis
“weg ail peels
FLETTRIC BOVS
ENTERTAINYWENT SOFTWARE
Distributed Exclusively in North America by Creative Micro Designs, Inc. 4
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